How I made over $30,000 in sales in 30 days
Starting a new business during a global pandemic wasn't exactly the best idea, but I still generated 30,000 in revenue from scratch!
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I’ll be honest, I’m still shocked I managed to make nearly 3x my salary for a month by selling nothing but…. I’m sure you guessed, Football Cards! My business started on a whim, a buddy of mine got me into sports cards again. I learned about these things called box breaks.
What’s a box break? Good question. People like myself would purchase a team such as the Kansas City Chiefs, hoping to pull some of the best autographed rare cards that might be in a mix of different hobby boxes.
It’s a form of gambling no doubt. Joe Burrow Autographed cards are selling for thousands of dollars! You can typically buy the Bengals in one of my breaks around $100. Not many other places you can get a 10x return on your investment for no work!
Start Small
I started extremely small, 1 box break a week. I was running most of them off eBay auctions to get exposure to lots of potential customers. Of course, I had a Facebook page with nearly 0 likes and no following.
My first break was a disaster. I could not get enough people interested to fill it completely. I lost $500 on that alone. This would be enough to make most people quit, or worst, no follow-through by shipping the cards out.
My reputation on the line with my very first customers, I knew I had to get their cards out as soon as possible. So I did, took the hit, and moved onto the next one.
Breaks 2–6 I was lucky to break even. Again, eBay fees, small customer base, ate into every dollar I made.
The Breakthrough
Breaks 7–15 started to actually make a little money. Wasn’t much, only $100–$300 dollars at a time. Finally, though I was able to start investing in more advertising and some more expensive boxes.
These breaks started filling sooner than a week! Wow, now I can do more than 1 per week, make money that much quicker, that’s fantastic. Customers love when they spend money and claim their team to be able to see their cards as soon as possible so this was huge.
Biggest Week Ever
This last week was our biggest week ever! We did $15,000 in sales! We expanded to Baseball and Hockey breaks as well! I’ve been able to invest over $10,000 in inventory now to always be ready to post that next break. I’ve averaged 10% growth in new Facebook likes and Facebook group members.
Our email subscriber list has nearly doubled from 250–500 as well!
Keeping it Going
Of course, scaling this is the biggest issue. Every break results in hours of sorting, packing, and shipping cards. This is tough as a one-man show.
Next month we will be releasing our subscription break service that I’m beyond excited to announce! I truly believe this will change the entire market.
In addition, we’ll clarify our break tiers between Value/Premium/Mega breaks so customers know what to expect in any given break so they don’t have to be an expert in the hobby to know if they are getting a good deal or not.
It took 3 months to hit this major milestone, lots of long hours and lots of hard work. The main principle I’ve tried to build the entire business around, is integrity, love of the hobby and the sport, and of course, having fun!
If you’re interested in following our journey, head over to our website BlogsHobbyShop.com and bookmark our page or like us on Facebook!
