This week we circle back with Ken Gaitano, The Hustle Bee, and talk selling sneakers on eBay and much more. We dig deeper than we have before into his background, selling, buying, and collecting sneakers. We talk about sneakers on eBay, eBay Lives, eBay sneaker authentication and everything else The Bee is up to!
The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly is the e-commerce resource for the seller community across all platforms and a hub for information on growing your business. Find out more at thesellercommunitypodcast.com, leave a message or ask a question at anchor.fm/sellercommunitypodcast, or email us at podcast@listperfectly.com.
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Intro
Doug: Welcome to season three, episode 29 of The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly. This week, I touched base with my buddy Ken Gaitano, The Hustle Bee. I’ve known Ken almost the entire time he’s been selling for seven years. He’s seen a lot of change. I’ve interviewed him a few times this time. We dig a little deeper. We talk about his background, talk about his influences. We dig deep into sneakers, collecting, selling, and buying. We talk about eBay, eBay Lives, and the stuff he’s doing there. He shares some tips and he talks about never settling and pursuing dreams, which is something he always does.
So let’s dig into it with Ken The Hustle Bee and selling sneakers on eBay.
Ken The Hustle Bee
Doug: It’s always great to talk to my friend who I’ve known for years, the Hustle Bee Ken Gaitano, the Hustle Bee. Here, you know him, sneaker seller, his buddy Hustler Hacks. He travels with his wife Jacy, who helps him document all his content. He’s an eBay guy. He’s doing eBay lives, he’s doing events and he’s super inspiring. Always positive and just always great to talk to. So, Welcome back, Ken. You’ve had multiple appearances. It’s almost time for the velvet jacket.
Ken: For sure. Appreciate you, Doug. Thank you so much for having us. Shout out as well to, List Perfectly for always being there and, you know, seeing the vision of you know, the brand, the Hustle Bee, and together with, you know, the education that we provide with Hustler Hacks. So that’s something that’s near and dear to us when really people understand what our goal and end game is and, you know, at the end of the day, it’s just, we’re just here trying to provide people and share our experiences, you know, from the things that we have learned.
Doug: Yeah. Awesome. And we definitely appreciate you and what you’re doing. Speaking of that, so you spoke at, List Perfectly Event Camp Listing Party. How was that for you?
Ken: Oh, it was, it was amazing, to be honest with you. That was the first event that we did this year. so, you know, we kind of made it to a point that the whole year we were gonna be very intentional on which events that we were gonna go to.
Yeah. And this one really kind of like it, it felt really home, you know? It felt like home. That’s what, that’s what I told, Clara, the Co-CEO and I said like, the people, you know, were just super genuine and it was amazing, you know, being in one conference and hotel, kind of have like a mini eBay open field like we used to have before, so everybody running into each other.
That was fun. And the different variety of, I guess, people, right? From social media, people, from consignment base, from massive stores to like having warehouses. Yeah. to YouTubers. It was, it was, it was there. It was all there. And, it was very refreshing and me and my wife’s goal was to learn from other people.
You know, besides the fact of us sharing our story, we were like, we need to get as many nuggets as we can. And we did. We did a lot of, you know, we, we found a lot of golden nuggets of knowledge from other people there.
Doug: And what were a couple of those nuggets that stood out for you?
Ken: I think a lot of it is like, the one is, it reaffirmed the value of community.
I think that was one of the biggest things that, within the eBay selling community, there are sub-communities that are there that to actually really get to know each other. And that was the thing. The other one is like, you know, learning from other sellers that are very consistent in social media.
I think one of the things that we have done well early on with our social media journey was like, really be on point with it, but as the business grew, that time allocated for the social media was like getting less and less. But at the same time, it was like, it kind of like made me realize like, wait, we’re doing this whole thing.
Including social media, because social media pretty much was our outlet to share our experiences. So it’s like, why are we experiencing new things now and we’re not sharing and vice versa, right? I can’t keep sharing the same things over and over again without experiencing new things. So it was like, it showed me that it was very intertwined and you know, you just have to document your journey.
And we’re seven years in and I’ve heard people. Over 15 years in and selling on eBay and being part of the community. So that was like, man like when I think that we’re, we’ve done a long way already. A lot of people made me realize, wow. Like I’m, I’m a baby too long.
Doug: Well, since you brought that up, it’s interesting. So I think I’ve known you for most of those seven years. And you and I know each other well, and I’ve interviewed you multiple times, but, so this time I wanted to dig a little deeper into it. Different things that are related to you. So, go back and tell us how you initially got into sneakers.
Ken: Yeah, I think it started when I was in, getting into my freshman year of high school. This setting was way back in the Philippines. I, you know, I got interested in playing with the basketball team at the school that I went to. And, you know, like I’ve always just been kind of like an outdoor guy. I’ve never really gotten into the video game side of things, you know?
This was, you know, I was born in the nineties, so, it was like, I’ve seen cell phones, you know, like, progress throughout my years. but I was really into like playing outdoors, playing sports and a lot of that was like, you know, hanging out with kids my age. so. You know, I tried out for the basketball team, made a basketball team, and next thing you know, I was like, started looking at, you know, sneakers or shoes, basketball shoes.
I was like, yeah, whoa. Like, then I got open to like, wait, like, you know, and then we started talking about performance. This is more grip than that. This got more, you know, this is more flexible than that shoe. So it got really technical and I was like, okay, so I’m learning all this, but, but along the way, I knew that.
That my parents really didn’t have a lot of money to buy a brand-new pair of sneakers. Okay. and so the story was like, you know, my mom and dad always, you know, we’d go out to the mall and I would always check out what’s on sale. So immediately my mindset was like, what’s. What, what can I get? cheap for, cheap for the low, because I wanna get the, you know, I wanna get the best bang for my parents’ buck.
And, during that time, I would always, I would have to always wait for my birthday, which was in August. So, it would be a Christmas present. So, And, you know, all this time going there. I was, what I didn’t know. Subconsciously I was just learning about these different models and how prices have gone down throughout time.
And then finally, my parents are like, okay, like, okay, let’s make a deal since you’re really like wanting brand new shoes and it’s not your birthday yet, yadda. And it’s like, my parents were like, okay, if you get straight A’s in each, in a grading period, you get a brand new pair of shoes.
That’s how it started, my love for the shoe. Then, you know, I became a straight-A student with cool pair of shoes. so, and then, you know, like, back in high school I was like, oh man, this guy’s smart. And then he’s got cool pair of sneakers, so he’s not the nerd kind of guy. Yeah. You know, that’s how it started.
And then, every, everything since then, it was, my mom, my mom actually gave me a poster, it says, we’ll work for shoes. Yeah. Because every time the shoe was the bribe. Yeah. It was like, I don’t care about money, food, toys, or anything. Like it was shoes. Like, I’ll buy you shoes if you do this. Yeah. So, that’s how it started.
Doug: So, you know, potentially four pairs of sneakers a year, right?
Ken: Yeah. I got four pairs of sneakers. Yeah. Yeah. Every year. So, yeah, obviously it wasn’t the most expensive one cuz I started, you know, realizing like, oh, it, it costs a lot. But, that’s kind of like how everything started.
Doug: And so what was that very first pair?
Ken: Man. The first was a Kevin Garnett, Nike Flight. That was the first brand new pair that I got and a lot of the stuff that I’ve had before that were like hand-me-downs. But this was the one that, you know, like I picked it off the wall and, you know, sized it up and then went home with a bag. It was from an Athletic Club. Like an older store athletic club.
Doug: You do have a favorite pair of sneakers that’s kind of inspiring for you, and you keep ’em close, and I think you have a few pairs. So tell us about your favorite pair of sneakers.
Ken: It’s a Jordan 12 flu game. it is the one that Michael wore when he had, the flu, which was, actually, a food poisoning game. You know, he wasn’t supposed to play that game. He was throwing up all night, dehydrated, and then, Played a closeout game and defeated the Utah Jazz.
Scored 38 points. literally right after, right after, you know, the game, Scotty Pippen pretty much had to like, you know, put him on his shoulder and, and walked him out the court. That spoke to me a lot like the story, you know, in the nineties, like you’ve seen the shot, you’ve seen the game, you’ve seen posters.
Yeah. And along with his accomplishments, right, because that was pretty much like his fifth ring, going to his sixth ring. it made me realize, there’s a lot that you have to do to be, to be great. And which he has actually modeled, you know, greatness comes with sacrifice and repeating things over and over again, until you get things done.
So, so Jordan 12. Yeah. The black and red. That was, that was definitely a shoe that I’ll never, you know, get rid of. And I’m always gonna keep buying, buying those if I get the chance.
Doug: So is Michael Jordan, obviously one of your heroes?
Ken: Definitely. one of the heroes that I, you know, I was, I was too young to watch him play. But crazy enough, you know, we have this thing called YouTube and back in the day the DVD highlights. I got all his DVD highlights, so I would literally sit down and watch his games on DVD and just start watching ’em and felt like I was in the moment.
Doug: Nice. Yeah. Cuz you played basketball. Had this interest in sneakers. And then just an inspiring guy.
Ken: Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
Doug: What was the spark where you discovered you could sell these sneakers that you loved?
Ken: Yeah, it was, back in, I think, so I moved here in 2013. Okay. and, you know, but for the first year I didn’t get a job yet because I was waiting for my green card and my social security ID number.
During this time I was just trying to buy sneakers that I didn’t have. when I was growing up. So then I started, you know, getting to Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, during that time I was still up. I was trying to find, you know, like what’s the best deal and I was looking for a used one. and then, right in between like 2016 before we started an eBay store, in 2015 and 2016, I got a job already. Just when I started buying from eBay, I would send offers on eBay. I would try to, you know, what they would call lowball. Everybody. I would have every, I would send offers on like, you know, a hundred dollars off and like, they’d just ignore my offer. but some of ’em would take it.
So by this time, I had to run like a hundred pairs of collections already. Like pretty much my savings or my paycheck went to sneakers And, we decided to go home to the Philippines and I needed to pay rent and car payment for, you know, while we’re gone for a month. Yeah. So I was like, okay, I need to make extra money.
So I was like, oh, let me try to sell these sneakers back to eBay. That’s when I started realizing like, wait, I paid 200 bucks for this and it just sold for $300. Like, wait, like I just let it collect in my, you know, collect dust in my shelves, looking at it, enjoying watching it every day. And then it turned into a profit.
So I was like, wait, like this is kind of like a stock market now, you know? Like I bought a piece of stock and then they just increased or a piece of art. Right. and then that’s when collectibility and collectible kind of like, Opened my eyes. I was like, okay. And then that’s when I was like, okay, I probably could make this work.
So when we got back, I pretty much like, okay, I need capital to do more of these. So I pretty much slashed my collection in half and tried to sell it on eBay. And that’s how I kind of got like the first $500, of capital that I, I I invested in the eBay store when we started in 2017. And along the process, that’s when I started tubing stuff and found Glen Hustler Hacks.
Doug: Do you remember the first pair you ever sold?
Ken: Man, I can’t, I can’t remember. It was, I’m sure it was, I know for a fact it was a black and red Jordan because all my collections were black and red. That’s all I had. So it was the Chicago Bulls. It’s pretty much stuff that he wore. So I’m, I, I’m definitely sure there was one of the Air Jordan 12 flu games there, cuz at one point I had 10 pairs of them and I was like, oh, it doesn’t, it doesn’t make sense to keep 10 pairs of them.
So, I’m down to three pairs now.
Doug: All right. Alright. So, this ties into what I was gonna ask you. So Glen Hustler hacks, YouTuber, and sneaker guy. You’ve been around for a bit. You learned a ton from him. I mean, how much of what you know did you learn from watching him?
Ken: A lot of it has to do with the stores in the US Cause I never heard of, I’ve only known of, Nike outlet. Because I’ve been to Nike Outlet multiple times, but I never knew about Ross Dress for Less in Burlington called Factory and Marshall’s having it. Yeah, because I’ve always thought Marshall’s was like polos, you know, like leather shoes, uh those casual, you know, dad shoes pretty much until I started seeing his videos that he was going to the stores and finding this.
So that’s kind of like, he kind of gave me the permission like, Hey, it’s here. Go hunt for this. And, during this time it was, you know, he had an article come out of him paying his student loans, like, oh, he’s paid his student loan for this. And I’m like, okay, this is real money. Now we can live off of this.
And that’s pretty much where it started. And then after that, it was just exploring more within the category. Cuz you know, like sneakers, I was really, you know, well versed about it, but there were so many different, you know, football cleats, soccer cleats, running shoes, golf. Yeah. Shot put. I mean, I didn’t even know there were so many like javelin throwing, what’s the difference?
Right. But there were I mean I call it sports-specific footwear. Yeah. which is definitely a lot harder to find. You can’t just walk into any other store and find those.
Doug: Yeah. My son, he throws shot put, discus, hammer, and he’s got, shotput shoes, throwing shoes, different kinds for different things. He has to have running shoes too.
Ken: Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, that’s, that’s pretty much where I got all those ideas early on that it’s like, oh, it’s available in these stores.
Doug: And so sneaker collecting’s hot, sneakers selling’s hot, sneaker buying’s hot. There are, I mean, there are sites dedicated just to sneakers. Platforms dedicated just to sneakers. But it’s particularly hot on eBay where a pair of sneakers sells every five seconds. So why do you think sneakers are so hot, and why particularly on eBay?
Ken: I think eBay started the whole market, early back on. it was, you know, obviously, it was one of the earliest e-commerce websites, even back in the day when forums were like a big thing.
Right? So everybody wrote on forums? It was called NikeTalk. It was a forum called NikeTalk and we all just, I, I didn’t actually post it cuz I was old enough to have an account, but you could watch, you could, you can’t reply, but you could read. So I was getting my insider news there and stuff like that.
This was before vlogs and stuff like that. Yeah. And, I think it has evolved over time that I think, you know, in a, in a. Maybe within the last 15 years now, it has opened to more platforms. We have GOAT and StockX coming in. Two major players that started solely for sneakers. and then now you have big consignment shops and I think the availability was open too. The mass market now compared to what it was before, it was hard. You had to be within the community to be able to talk to each other. I think lately, you know, I felt like eBay has lost that, eBay lost that market share because, kids during this time, It was app-based, right?
Everybody was like Snapchat, Instagram, so everybody was phone-centric, and StockX and, and GOAT built it around that. And that’s when they took a lot of market share because it was easier to navigate. You know, their parents had eBay, but they didn’t have an eBay account because then you have to have PayPal.
You’ve had to have, you know like it was more of a grown person’s thing. But now, they made it an app that made it more accessible than, you know, Apple Pay credit card. It was like you didn’t have to have an account to check out on this one. Yeah, I mean, if you can, if you want to, but the, and they, they took a lot of the market share on that and, I felt like it was a losing battle for hot sneakers for eBay during that time until one day about two to three years ago.
eBay decided to take it back and they pretty much announced any sneaker over a hundred bucks, zero fees. That’s when the landslide happened. I mean, imagine selling a $200 shoe. That would be a $20 fee in any other platform now straight to your pocket. Yeah. so I think it was 2019, that’s when it happened, 18 or 19 somewhere there.
That’s when we just went deep, you know, like zero fees. You’ve never heard of this. Yeah. And, eBay pretty much took that back. And, now with the authenticity guarantee that eBay did, they pretty much, you know, got the authentication from Sneaker Con and that’s when it became a thing.
Now eBay’s back again as a major player in the game, and that’s where, you know, every five seconds, a shoe sells on eBay. So, you know, imagine there’s probably a hundred pairs already since we started talking that sold on eBay right now.
Doug: And, so is that why you’re so eBay-focused?
Ken: Yes, a hundred percent. That’s where I think, you know, compared to the other platforms, we obviously eBay has definitely the most users, active users. so that’s, that’s the, the main focus now. And again, obviously, you can sell anything 24 hours on eBay, on a website. it was just a lot, you know, cost-effective for us to list on eBay rather than having our own website.
Doug: So, Give us a brief overview of eBay’s sneaker authentication and how it works, and do you use it?
Ken: Yeah, I mean, I use it every day. Most brand new sneakers, over $75 go to authentication now. it started at 250 the, the price range, and it went to $200, $150 to $100. Now it’s 75.
So, as a buyer, you pay $14.95 for shipping. Okay? And then when you buy something from me, eBay sends me a label that I need to ship it to a warehouse. So I will ship it to a warehouse closest to the buyer. Now the warehouse, which is the authentication center for eBay, I sent it there.
And then the authenticators verify the shoe if it’s legit or not. And if it matches the description, if it’s really new, if it’s, you know if it’s used. Am I hiding different flaws? you know, is it stinky or not? Something like that. Right? Because you have to disclose everything.
Doug: I’ve seen that. I’ve seen that dude. They smell ’em.
Ken: Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, they smell ’em. and, Then, the buyer receives it, with, an eBay tag. It’s actually an NFC tag that you can scan on your phone that will actually match the shoe that you have. so it’s in their database that it has gone through in, in the back end.
They’ll know who authenticated it when it got authenticated, and stuff like that. So, it gave the buyers a lot of confidence because, you know, in eBay, There are still some fakes going around during this era. Yeah. But now you can’t pass fakes through authenticity. And then also for sellers, it gives me confidence that you are not gonna lie.
And you said, oh, I got fakes. I need to return you, you know, the, the, the, the switcher rule case. Right. Like, I’ll, I’ll buy a real one and then I’ll return a fake one. Yeah. And then the seller gets screwed. So that’s not, that’s not happening anymore.
Doug: Nice. Nice. And so you are, You were early into eBay lives. How is that going for you?
Ken: Yeah, we’re, it’s still current in a beta test right now. I think there are around only 10 people that can go live in the sneaker category. Nice. See? It’s very new. We’re definitely, you know, for lack of a better term, I feel like we’re stress testing it.
Okay. We’re trying to see if we can break it. Which is good. You know, I’ve worked with them closely. I’ve traveled with them recently to Sneaker Con, you know, to do lives there to promote it, but a lot of it is just, you know, testing, different strategies, different setups. So that’s one of the things that we’re doing and, and I think, you know, it’s, it’s definitely another avenue that we can sell and I would say it’s a fun way of selling sneakers.
Doug: Yeah. Yeah. No, I’ve seen you there. It’s fast and you’re great. Yeah. I mean, cuz you’ve done this before, but. It’s pretty sweet, and it’s available via the mobile app. If you’re not able to find it, you can go there up in that right-hand corner, there’s an eBay live button. You click that and then you see who’s live, who’s coming up, and then you can see replays too. I thought that was cool.
Ken: Yeah, you, yeah. Replays. And then you can still buy the products from the replay if it’s still available.
Doug: So, and I’ve always wondered, but I’ve never been, Sneaker Con’s come up a couple of times. Mm-hmm. So what’s Sneaker Con like, and why is it, why is it so important and influential?
Ken: I think it’s, it’s, I, I think it’s a giant. Meet up for collectors. Right. So, back in the day when it started, we would meet up with all our friends from Facebook groups at sneaker events. Sneaker Con is the name, but it’s a sneaker convention, where you could buy tables, they call to buy, sell, trade.
You can buy, you can sell there and you can trade. you know, early on it was, you know, there were people that would get a table just to date, display their collection. There were people that would just sell and there are people that just literally said, I buy everything. And we just sell to the stable.
It’s just kind of pretty much a trade show, you know, but it’s all sneakers. Everybody dresses really cool and fly. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s a giant, I would say, red carpet, runway vibe, you know, everybody like styles the way they do, you know, you got the OG heads with her, you know, the old collectors with their son, you know, like the old dude trying to teach their young buck some new game. And then you got the, you got the parents bringing their kids, the grandpa. So I think it’s a really cool bonding moment. for the community. You know, there’s family-based, there’s friends based. And, there’s a business base.
So, you know, I’ve always seen it as great networking. You get to rub shoulders with the biggest sneaker sellers in the country, and the most influential sneaker sellers in the country. And now within probably the last three or four years, the brands have invested in there. Yeah, eBay is there. Monster Energy drink is there.
Just different big brands that are sponsoring different events. Sometimes there are cars, sometimes it’s just, you know, a cool place. I would say. You know, it’s Disneyland for sneakerheads.
Doug: That’s awesome. I gotta go sometime. I gotta go sometime. Okay, so in the seven years you’ve been doing this, you’ve seen a lot of change. You’ve seen GOAT come along, you’ve seen StockX, you’ve seen eBay like you kind of said it’s true. You’ve seen eBay kind of lose the market and then get it back with eBay authentication, and you’ve seen lives like Whatnots and eBay lives and you know, different marketplaces expanding to include sneakers.
So in your view, what’s the future? What’s next for sneaker sellers?
Ken: I think it’s just a cycle. It goes up and down. currently, with the economy where it’s sad, it’s not the hottest right now. Yeah. I think sneakers are one of the first and easiest things to cut off of your spending exp expense or your spending budget.
You know, gone are the days where people were just, you know, sporadically spending two to $400 on sneakers. Yeah. Now I feel like everybody’s trying to become a smart shopper, which is, I think that’s where eBay has an edge. I think it’s the marketplace for smart shoppers. It’s not the easiest to navigate.
Yeah. But, you know, but if you can find the deal, so it’s still, there’s like a thrill of the hunt on the eBay platform. Definitely. In other platforms, it’s so easy to sort from low to high. It’s actually the lowest off the rip. the, you know, StockX and GOAT will show you the lowest. So there’s no option for you to buy a more expensive pair.
They will just sell you the lowest product. Right now it’s on the downtrend. but I think, you know, it’s a matter of time before there will be an upswing again. it’s always gonna be there. I think at the end of the day. the community’s gonna hold it up. and, look. The sneaker collectors are always gonna be there.
I think the biggest shift really that I’ve noticed is back in the day we had this sort of like heroes that actually wore our shoes and performed in our shoes. The Michael Jordans,, the late Kobe Bryant. I think we’re a big staple on sneakers. Yeah. And I think now with the LeBron era, it’s a mixture because there’s an influx of the influencers of the artists of the hip-hop culture now promoting sneakers. So, As an older collector, I could slowly see like, oh, the young ones really don’t see it. You know, the young ones don’t, don’t really truly care about it because all of a sudden now, like you see people rocking shoes be not because of Michael Jordan because.
An artist wore em, a celebrity, an influencer wore em, but you cannot fault them because they didn’t grow up in an era where, you know, everybody watched N B A, you know, everybody knew Michael Jordan was, you know, it’s funny now that a lot of them don’t know the stories of the new sneakers. They just like it because of the style.
So yeah, it shifted from a very collectible, close-knit community now to mainstream, but, For some people they said, oh, you’ve, you’ve lost the way. Okay. But now it’s pushed it so much into fashion. Yeah. That, you know, recently, higher, you know, higher end brands like Louis Vuitton have, have, have, collaborated with Nike, with a sneaker that’s never heard of before in our era.
But now it’s been pushed to, you know, to. Push into the fashion end, very fashion-heavy instead of like the performance. Yeah. basketball sports-centric side. So that’s the swing, and I think it will continue to, you know, bounce back and forth. But, with social media and the, you know, the digital space that we live in right now, You know so many people making content about them anymore.
Yeah. Back in the day, the content was the game, the basketball game. You know, the highlights. That’s what it was. Now there’s so much creativity in the space where. People would, you know, customize a shoe, people would, you know, make cool videos about him. Yeah. Take cool photos of him. And it’s so much more, the barrier of entry has pretty much, it’s not there, there’s no barrier to entry.
You just have to have a sneaker and you add it to your art and it’s, it, so, I think that’s where the sneaker culture, I mean, I think overall it’s always gonna be for the better. It’s just gonna be different perspectives now.
Doug: Yeah. That’s interesting. That’s interesting. All right, before we go, I want to get three quick tips from you.
Give us your top sourcing tip.
Ken: I would always say my favorite, you know, for sourcing is to go to Nike, Nike Outlet, which is my favorite. Can’t be biased, but I am, I love Nike. go on like a holiday weekend sale. And go early on a Friday, you know, like we have like a 4th of July back to school sale.
I always tell everybody to either go early Thursday morning or early Friday morning. Those are, you know, the least traffic and that’s when you can still find all the deals before everybody gets to ’em. So you gotta be, at least be in the first five people in line on an early Thursday or Friday for sourcing.
Doug: Okay. How about a top listing tip?
Ken: I would always say, your first impression really makes a big difference on your listing. And it goes to photos. You gotta have a good-looking photo. You know, it’s your primary photo that has to be on point. And I think over time we have, you know, had so many different photos set up.
I think this time we’ve had the longest photo setup that we haven’t changed cuz we’re finally, you know, accepting it. It’s like, okay, this is the best quality with the speed of operation that we have. And, I think photos really entice the buyer, especially, you know, for a sneaker, for something that’s really cool.
You wanna present it better.
Doug: Nice. All right. Let’s shift a little bit for this last tip. Give us a top collecting tip.
Ken: I would say collect something that really means something to you. Okay. you know, the word hype, you know, like, oh, I wanna collect hype items only pretty much the expensive, the one that has the most resale value.
Yeah. I think. You know, when you’re looking at it that way, you’re not really a collector. You’re more of like a, you’re looking at it as a business. But I think collecting is like, you gotta find something that has meaning to you and that you appreciate looking at. You know, like, like most things in life, a lot of them don’t have high monetary value.
Sure. So you gotta look at it as something that if you truly care about it, if you relate to it, and you know, if you appreciate it more than other people, then. Value really doesn’t matter.
Doug: Awesome. Awesome. All right. What’s next for the Bee?
Ken: I think late, for the next, you know, half of the year. we’re trying to get to as many networking events that we can get to.
You know, we’re working closely with eBay, with the seller community and also now added the eBay sneakers community or the eBay sneakers department. That’s one of the things that we’ve been working on a lot and I think, to be honest with you, Richards, you know, it’s still 2023. You guys are listening to it right now.
In what, in, in summer of 23. But, I’m thinking of 2024 already. Yeah. Trying to get ahead of my next year and, as soon as next year hits, I want to be up and running already. So, trying to be proactive now.
Doug: Nice. Nice. All right. Anything to add before we go?
Ken: No, I think going back to the two words I always tell everybody, never settle.
If there was anything that you could learn from me or, or get inspired with, our journey is we’ve never settled. So, if you, you know, if you still have dreams and, and goals in your life, it’s still out there. You know, there might be obstacles in life. But it can always be overcome and you can always do better.
That’s my goal, to tell everybody that there’s always bigger and better things for you and your family or the things that you care about and go after it. Never sell for the lesser things.
Doug: Nice. Yeah, dude, and you’re totally a testament to that. So. Always inspiring and never settling, and always fun to talk to you.
So thanks for joining us today and I’m sure that we will talk again soon. But thanks so much Ken The Hustle Bee.
Ken: Thank you.
Outro
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