Inspired By His Dad’s 1990s eBay Business, He’s Flipping Products Into Millions of Dollars a Year: ‘I Was Hooked On Selling’

Growing up successful Milford, Massachusetts successful the 1990s, Nick Bruni attended section coin shows pinch his father. Occasionally, Bruni would thief his dada waste the collectibles online, backmost successful the early days of eBay — listing items and packing orders. 

Image Credit: Courtesy of Old Skool Pokemon. Nick Bruni.

“ I was ne'er hugely passionate astir coins,” Bruni, 34, tells Entrepreneur. “But I liked the thought of being your ain boss and trading your ain worldly to make a living.” 

In precocious school, Bruni was cleaning retired his room 1 time erstwhile he stumbled upon his Pokémon postulation from the 1990s. He wondered what the cards were worthy and asked his dada to thief him database them connected eBay to find out. They organized the cards, took pictures and put together the offering. 

I fell successful emotion pinch the eBay process.

“ I fell successful emotion pinch the eBay process,” Bruni recalls. “I would travel location from schoolhouse each time checking the position count, the number of watchers, what the bid was astatine and reply immoderate questions. Seven days later, erstwhile the auction ended, we shipped the bid out, and I was hooked connected selling something.” 

After Bruni sold his first Pokémon collection online, he reinvested the net into different Pokémon collection, which he collapsed isolated to waste arsenic individual cards. 

For years, done precocious schoolhouse and college, Bruni continued flipping Pokémon collectibles connected eBay arsenic a part-time hobby. 

From part-time hobby to full-time eBay resale business

When Bruni graduated from assemblage successful 2016, he began to return his online sales much seriously. Bruni was moving successful the Merchant Marine connected a cargo ship, which meant 3 to 4 months on, followed by 3 to 4 months off. 

“ So that’s erstwhile I would attraction connected the eBay business,” Bruni explains. “I needed thing to inhabit my time, and I besides really enjoyed Pokémon, truthful it was decidedly a passion task and a secondary root of income.”

About 5 years later, astatine the opening of 2021, Bruni decided to attraction connected flipping collectibles full-time — and his business, Old Skool Pokemon, has seen dependable maturation since. In 2022, Bruni pulled successful $660,000 successful yearly sales. 

By October 2023, the business had taken disconnected to specified an grade that Bruni hired his first distant worker to support up pinch demand. That year, yearly income surpassed $1 million, past accrued to astir $1.3 cardinal the pursuing year. 

Old Skool Pokemon achieved complete $2 cardinal successful yearly income by 2025. What’s more, the business has already generated $1.5 cardinal successful 2026, truthful Bruni is eyeing the $3 cardinal milestone this year. 

Image Credit: Sara Stathas/Bloomberg via Getty Images. A Pokemon Co. paper postulation successful Random Lake, Wisconsin, U.S., connected Thursday, July 1, 2021.

High-volume trading successful a competitory collectibles market

Pokémon collectibles stay the business’s breadstuff and butter. Bruni sells vintage collections going backmost to the 1990s and existent sets released today, typically arsenic azygous cards. 

The business relies connected a important measurement of sales, pinch margins astatine astir 15%, Bruni says. 

“Last year, erstwhile we did $2 cardinal successful sales, we sold 96,000 items,” he adds. “Average waste value $21. So it’s ne'er a really high-value card, making a batch of money disconnected 1 azygous item.”

Bruni sources his products from wholesale distributors Mad Al and Southern Hobby. He notes that arsenic Pokémon has enjoyed a “massive resurgence” successful caller years, getting his hands connected the newest sets tin beryllium difficult. 

“A mates years ago, you could bargain collections each time astatine 65%, 70%,” Bruni says. “Nowadays, you’re having to salary 80%, 85%. So you’re moving connected razor-thin margins and having to dress up for that successful the measurement that you’re selling.” 

Pokémon only useful pinch 8 distributors successful the U.S., and request has accrued to the constituent that those distributors chiefly judge caller applications from sellers who person brick-and-mortar stores, Bruni notes. 

Live streaming unlocks a caller level of scale, first hire

One of the biggest caller changes — and boon for business — is Bruni’s committedness to live streaming, which allows him to open and waste packs to his assemblage successful existent time. 

“When eBay announced it was going to present a unrecorded streaming facet [in June 2022], I knew I wanted to get connected there,” Bruni says. “I liked the thought and knew that it could beryllium a really large thing.” 

Bruni’s first appraisal has proven correct. Live streaming ramped the business up considerably successful 2023, requiring that first hire, a chap seller (KetchumAllCollectibles) successful Chicago whom Bruni had met done the Pokémon community. The duo besides co-hosts the PokeFlipz podcast connected YouTube.

Soon after, Bruni relocated from Massachusetts to Chicago to beryllium person to his friend, past brought connected a 2nd worker to thief negociate the fast-growing business and make it imaginable to unrecorded watercourse each day. 

“It was reliable to bring connected further help,” Bruni admits. “My business is my baby. I would person to springiness up immoderate control. But hiring employees to thief you standard your business is very beneficial. I’m astatine the constituent now wherever I would not beryllium capable to grip everything that’s going connected by myself.” 

Nowadays, Bruni estimates that he spends astir 10 hours a time moving connected the business, 7 days a week, pinch the occasional days off. That includes unrecorded streaming 7 nights a week; a watercourse tin past anyplace from 3 to 8 hours. 

“ It’s a tremendous magnitude of work, but it’s besides a immense passion of mine,” Bruni says. “So it’s some my occupation and thing that I really, really bask doing.” 

Expanding into beingness unit and what comes next

Now, Bruni is preparing for an breathtaking adjacent section for the business: opening his first brick-and-mortar store. He’s presently deciding betwixt a fewer places successful the Chicago area and hopes to unfastened successful September. 

However, a beingness storefront doesn’t mean Bruni has immoderate plans to time off eBay — successful fact, he sees the description into brick-and-mortar arsenic an opportunity to merge in-person income and virtual flips.

Opening the beingness shop will let Bruni to acquisition Pokémon products from group who extremity by and supply an perfect unrecorded streaming set-up for his online customers. 

“I tin beryllium stepping astir the shop, showing group successful the stream, ‘Hey, this is what we person disposable today. What do you guys want to bid on?’” Bruni says. “It will springiness a virtual paper shop acquisition to the internet, the group that travel into my streams.”