Reselling DO Review & Random Thoughts
This last weekend I was in the DC Area for the latest Reselling DO put on by Trevor from Tagging Miles. While there is a very clear and defined “reselling world” just as there is is a “miles and points world”, this conference surprisingly didn’t crossover too much. In attendance were about 70 miles and points hobbyists like you who have started reselling businesses to generate miles/points and profit. The normal reselling crowd seemingly didn’t get the memo.
As many of you know, I have been reselling quite a lot more this year and have been focusing on building a side (secondary) business doing it. Some people in attendance were in the same boat and some just did it occasionally. There were even a few people who don’t really resell and a couple who primarily dabble in gift cards.
Among the topics spoken about were:
- Stacking Gift Cards & Getting the Best Discounts
- Inventory Management and Reimbursement
- Using Data to Enhance Reselling
- Preparing for the 4th quarter
- Taxes, accounting, etc.
As you can see, outside of the gift card talk which probably made every miles junkie in the room excited, there was a lot of information that I would consider not so sexy. Well, it isn’t so sexy on the surface, but it is essential to running a successful business selling on Amazon. The truth is that reselling on anything but the smallest scale brings in a lot of issues that you need to deal with.
Reselling as Manufactured Spend
I have written about this before, but reselling isn’t manufactured spend at all. Basically, reselling involves starting a business that requires spend. As someone who has learned to maximize spend, you can then generate miles/points at a high level, but you are purchasing merchandise and (hopefully) selling it for a profit. It is work. Just look at those topics above. Accounting and inventory management? Yuck!
Attend a Conference Like This?
I really enjoyed the conference, because it was very much a miles & points gathering. As I said before, there were very few people attending from outside the miles & points community (shout out to all of the MtM readers I met!) which meant those who were in the room all fell into the same hyper-niche. I think it is important to move beyond hyper-niche groups from time to time, but networking within them and meeting others within them is equally as valuable.
Trevor announced he will be holding another Reselling DO in March of next year, but if you are interested in learning a bit more about whether reselling is for you and are attending the Chicago Seminars in October, then you are in luck. I will be giving a presentation on Saturday entitled, “Beginner and Intermediate Reselling for Profit and Points”. I’ll do my best to make it a great presentation.
Conclusion
I enjoyed the Reselling DO and was intrigued that there is so much interest in a singular topic within the miles & points realm. Of course it probably isn’t surprising given how lucrative reselling can be, but there is a ton of work involved as well.
Were you at the DO? Have you been reselling? Share your experiences and thoughts in the comments!
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Hi Shawn,
I’ve found a lot of value in your blog. Are you having another group meeting in 2017?
I am considering one for later in the year! Glad you enjoy the blog.
What does “DO” stand for?
No one seems to know. I believe it comes from Flyertalk but don’t think it stands for anything. It is pronounced the same as the word “Do” and just signifies a meetup or conference.
Wasn’t at the DO. I do a “little” reselling myself. Looking forward to attending some reselling conferences in the future.
Not sure which member of the team this is, but looking forward to meeting you at a conference!
We are all trying to hit ASD in March. You ever hit that show? Assad was patrolling CES last week. And we got some other things in the works.
I am hoping to get there. Missed it last year due to Spring Break.
How can I register to your event?
I provided a link in this post for Chicago Seminars. As of now that is the only event I am affiliated with. I am not affiliated with Reselling DO, but believe the specifics of the next event will be announced soon by Trevor from Tagging Miles.
Boring and not a worth a post. Sometimes less is more.
Appreciate your feedback. I do know that many of the site’s readers were interested in learning more about this so I hope they got value out of it.
we did
I am from the opposite side. I started reselling to make a living and then only after I was fully engaged I discovered the value of miles! Now, with yearly revenues pushing $3 million I have many more miles and hotel points than I need and focus a good deal on cash back. Of course, the bigger you get, the more discounts you get….so even with stacking gift cards, double dipping etc…buying from the factory or distributer is still cheaper. And sadly, when you start ordering 50,000$ at a time, no one wants credit card as a payment anymore…I hate it when I do the math and I am like OK I could get 11% back at one retailer, use that cash back to buy a 25% off gift card to another retailer, and then use those gift cards to get 7 miles per dollar spent there…calculate calculate calculate. Shoot, its cheaper to buy from the distributer directly. But, without figuring out the stacking in the beginning I never would have made it where I am now. So its definitely a way in the door.
Thanks for sharing your story!
Say hi to my biggest fan Rick I. at Chicago. Tell him to keep checking my blog Alexa rankings, thanks!
Will do George.
Great to meet you in person the other day!
I really like the way you categorise reselling as a business where you spend a lot of money rather than a way to MS. I might have to “borrow” that 😉
Shawn, it was nice to meet you in reselling do.
I actually started reselling way before I discovered Miles & Points on r/churning, i’m gladly they just converge nicely. Like having 2 hobby merged into 1.
There are a lot buzz word in “real” reselling crowd, like multi-channel fulfillment, keyword optimization, inventory management and reconciliation, goes all the way up to running full fledged e-commerce. I’m glad we’re staying small and nimble. I canvassed around a little bit. most attendees have a monthly revenue of 5k to 15k. 1 up to 50k per month,. Doing Prep center