The Sneaker Bible©
● How to Leverage Bots and other tools to Purchase Sneakers and Clothing
● The Introduction
The Introduction
There are a few fundamental things that you must understand to get into
the ‘sneaker game’. One of the first things that you have to understand is
that not every shoe is able to be sold for major profit. Off the top of my
head, the only shoes that are guaranteed to make you profit off ridiculous
resell prices are Yeezy’s, some Supreme shoe collaborations, limited
Adidas Consortium releases and some Nike Draw releases.
If the shoe you are looking to resell does not fall under one of these
categories, then you need to prepare yourself mentally for profiting only
$40$70 a shoe. This is often the case for most Jordan releases. However,
due to the massive market demand, a profit in that range is almost
guaranteed and so buying any amount of Jordan’s in this day and age is
like a very strong investment. Because of this major demand, resellers are
able to do things like what is pictured below with very little risk:
As the above pictures depict, people who are interested in making
money often buy up as many pairs as they can. In the case of the first
picture, there are 46 pairs of Jordan 12 French Blue shoes. Taking the
lowest possible amount you are willing to profit at about $40, that would
come out to nearly $1840 profit. Yes, you will have $8740 of charges on all
of your cards combined, but if placed at market value, the shoes would sell
very quickly due to the market demand and the fact that they sold out in
minutes online.
Now take into account that Jordan often releases a ‘hyped’
release/colorway at least once a month, that gives plenty of opportunity to
make some good money. Just to see the numbers played out, lets say
every month you bought 15 pairs of Jordans to resell, and you make $40profit on each pair. In the span of a year, that would mean you profited
$7200 in just Jordans that year, or $600 a release. Keep in mind, this is a
low profit compared to what we really want to accomplish. Obviously some
releases sell for much more, you could be pushing more than 15 pairs a
month and this is also a conservative number.
An example of a release that sold for a bit more than typical Jordan
resell prices would be the Master 12 release in February of 2016.
According to StockX, an online sneaker stock market, the average
deadstock price of a pair of Master 12’s is around $368! Retail was $190,
and so after fees and shipping, a total profit of about over $100 per pair is
very reasonable. This is assuming shipping would cost $15 and a high fee
of 10% is charged on the sale of the shoe depending on the site it was sold
on. Just to save you some math, 15 pairs of Master 12’s could have easily
netted you $1500 assuming you sold for $100 profit on each, again, a low
estimate.
Now, taking the figure we calculated previously, the $7200. Yes, that
may seem like a lot, but we can do better. This figure doesn’t include the
limited releases, nor the resell money that you can make on clothing as
well. Both of these additions can raise that yearly profit past the
$20k($20,000) mark. I have seen many reseller’s eclipse the $30k mark
and above. Now, you aren’t going to be pulling in $30k your first year, let’s
not get ahead of ourselves here, but you can certainly start somewhere
where you are making very good money and build up to that $30k and even
higher past that.
Just to give you a quick demonstration of how selling a very limited
sneaker such as the Yeezy 750 could net you major profit, watch some of
these numbers I’m about to throw at you. The Yeezy 750 tan variant is a
shoe that retailed for $350, and according to StockX, the average
deadstock selling price is $2,986. We are talking about over $2000 in profiton one shoe! If you were able to acquire 10 pairs of 750’s, congrats, you
just hit the $20k mark for the year. That’s not including every other Yeezy,
Jordan, Palace and Supreme release for that year. So, if you really are
doubting making the big bucks...don’t. It is very possible and after some
time learning the game, you can be doing it too.
In case you have any questions about the contents of this guide or
anything related to the sneaker game, I have a special question and
answer document that only you are allowed to edit. Here is a link to it and
feel free to ask a question or even answer yourself! Please do not share
this link with anyone as this is an editable document for those that have the
link!
● Q&A Document
Q&A Document
Questions and Answers Document: https://goo.gl/92L2Mw
● Bot Talk
Bot Talk
Now, I know you are wondering... “Yeah, I could make all this
money, but how hell do I do it? I want to know!” Well, here is where I get
down and dirty with the details and how using sneaker bots, virtual private
servers, addtocart services(atc), and anonymous internet proxies can
help make you money. Now, if none of those words made any sense to
you, don’t worry, they don’t have to. I will briefly explain what each one
does and why you need them. In addition to that information, I will provide
you with some of the top services for each respective category.
Below are some explanations of common terms that you should know.
● What is a Shoe Bot?
What is a Shoe Bot?
A shoe bot is a computer program that takes your personal checkout
information and quickly submits it to a website, automatically ordering ashoe or item for you. The amount of time is usually in milliseconds(ms).
● Dedicated Server
Dedicated Server
A dedicated server is an actual physical computer that you have full
control over and you are not sharing resources with others. The benefits of
a dedicated server include super fast high speed connections, and low
ping. Ping being the amount of time it takes for a computer to send an
action to a webserver and then receive a response. Lower ping and higher
speed internet directly correlates with a faster checkout speed and much
better chances at securing the shoes you want. Connections to dedicated
server systems are done via Remote Desktop, a process in which you log
into the computer remotely from your own computer.
● Virtual Private Server(VPS)
Virtual Private Server(VPS)
A virtual private server, or VPS, is a virtual server/computer that runs
concurrently with other virtual servers on a single machine. The benefits of
a VPS include the same as a dedicated server with one important
difference to take note of. Since you are using a VPS, you are sharing
resources of one computer! This means you are sharing internet speeds
which would give you lower speed as a result. Since our main purpose of
using a server is to have the best connection possible, dedicated servers
are preferred over VPS’s.
● AddToCart Services
AddToCart Services
This is a service in which you give all of your details to a 3rd party.
You give your card details, name and address to someone so that they
may use your information in their own bot setup. They run you a slot in their
bot and you have a very good chance at getting your item. This is because
an established atc service will have a reputable setup to get as many shoesas possible for up to as many slots as they can run without bogging down
their setup. This isn’t the case for all atc services, but the more reliable
services do and those will be listed later on.
● Internet Proxies
Internet Proxies
A proxy or proxies are essentially a computerized version of a
middleman. Instead of your computer connecting directly to the website,
your computer would connect to a proxy and then to the website. The
benefits of this include anonymous browsing and multi location access. You
could have 10 internet proxies located all over the US and when a shoe site
see’s those 10 different connections, it won’t assume they are coming from
the same person. This is essential when trying to secure multiple pairs of
anything online. The downside of proxies is the reduced ping time as you
are including more delay in the process. Depending on the proxies you
purchased, the delay could be from 10ms to 400ms. The graphic below
depicts the role of a proxy and how it acts as a middleman.
● Choosing The Right Bot
Choosing The Right Bot
As far as services go, here are some links that I am ordering in terms
of personal preference. Once again, the ranking is quite subjective, but all
of these services are very good in their own right. Top of the list is what I
am considering the best option, while the bottom is not necessarily the
worst, but they are still valid options in terms of what your price range is.
One thing that separates all of these bots from one another would
have to be the customer service. In most situations, I would not have to
mention this portion because you would assume every bot creator would
support their users very well....well that is not the case for every bot out
there. There are some creators that are more willing to support their
customers and their product.For starters, if you plan on buying from BetterNikeBot(BNB) don’t
expect anything for customer service. They rarely respond to emails and
tweets. For the most part you are on your own with them. However, one
thing that I will say about BNB is that it is highly supported and works very
well due to constant updates and additions from the creator. Despite very
lackluster customer support, product support is certainly strong with this
bot. As I mentioned before, there are instructionals on BNB’s YouTube
channel, instructions for every major release and a very detailed
documentation section on its website. However, if you cannot seem to get
things down from those sources of information you will have to look to other
users to get more detailed information on how to use the bot to its full
capability.
Although that may seem like an awkward jab at BNB, I personally
have gotten the silent treatment from them on many occasions and I won’t
forget it. I am very willing to turn my shoulder to them and have moved onto
other services that are much more willing to be even a small resource to
me.
Aside from BNB, most other bot creators are much more willing to
offer assistance with their services. Personally, and from what I have seen
from others, some of the top services in terms of customer and product
support would have to be HeatedSneaks, AnotherNikeBot(ANB) and
EasyCop. I will be including more information about these bots later on in
the document, so stay tuned. Below is a list of some of the best bots on the
market currently.
● Recommended Bots
Recommended Bots
http://www.buyaiobot.com/
http://www.easycopbots.com/
http://www.heatedsneaks.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html
http://nikeslayer.com/product/soleslayer/
http://www.betternikebot.com/
http://dnasoles.com/products/dnasoles-all-in-one
● Servers
Servers
I mentioned what a dedicated server is above and if you are still
confused, feel free to check out some of the sites I will be listing below and
read some of the information that they have posted. When it comes to
purchasing a dedicated server or VPS, there are a few things to take into
account.
Just so we are all on the same page here, let me explain what all of
this means and how it matters to us.
● Price
Price
This is a very important category due to the fact that you will be using
a server for every release you can and if you can save money, do it! One of
the best ways to save money on a server is to better understand what you
really need for your purposes. Right up front, you do not need the
monstrous x2 sniper elite 360 server for $500 a month. As I explain the
categories you will understand why.
One other thing to include in this section is that sometimes paying
hourly for a server is highly beneficial towards cost savings! The benefits of
purchasing hourly include not having to pay the high monthly cost if you are
not utilizing your server the entire month. Typical hourly rates will be
around the 612 cent per hour mark. If you plan on paying monthly for a
server, be prepared to pay around $40$60 a month for a good server
provider.
Some things to note about paying hourly for a server would include
mentioning that you must destroy your server after using it. This wipes theserver and disconnects you from any future access. It stops your costs
from accruing as well and you won’t pay anything further from there. In
addition to that though, whenever you would like to use your server
provider again, you would have to create another server instance. This
would include reinstalling all of your programs and any other necessary
items that you would need on your computer for typical bot usage.
This brings up an important issue that needs to be mentioned as well
when paying hourly. If you have a bot that uses serial keys for activation,
you must deactivate your bot on your server before destroying! Otherwise,
your key will be permanently tied to a computer that you are never ever
going to get access to again. From there you would have to contact your
bot creator and get your key reset, and that is not an easy task. So, let's
just avoid that all together and make sure you take care of your keys.
In addition to having to reinstall your bots, maybe Google chrome and
other programs...you may have some requirements for your system to even
run. Most bots need the latest .NET framework from microsoft and some
servers are not always the most up to date with their firmware versions. I
know for a fact that BNB needs .NET 3.5 to run and here is a trick to get it
quickly. On your server, open up Windows Powershell and paste this code
into the command prompt:
InstallWindowsFeature NETFrameworkCore Source D:\sources\sxs
For BNB users let that run and you should be good to go after it installs. If
you would like to read more about it here is a link explaining it more in
depth:
https://letitknow.wordpress.com/2013/03/30/cannotinstallnetframework35featuresonwindowsserve
r2012/
Now, there are two more major things to keep in mind. Because you
are on a server, security is going to be high and you are going to be slightly
restricted at first through some server providers. By this I mean the serversettings are not going to allow you to visit websites on your server without
asking your permission for every single site and link you attempt to visit.
There is an easy solution for this problem if you are on a server that does
this. Here are the steps below, just be sure to startup the Server Manager
application first:
Go to Local Server > IE Enhanced Security Configuration Setting > Off
The last thing for the server that we must take into consideration is
dealing with browsing sites on the server itself. Most sites have actually
blocked most of the subnets that server providers use for their service and
so you won’t be able to access some sites like Supreme or Nike. An easy
way around this is by using proxies. So if you are using a bot, be sure to
not use your local IP as it will most likely be banned already. Proxies are
necessary on a server.
Keep in mind that if you are paying monthly, you would only have to
do this once! However, if you go the hourly route, you would have to do this
every time you create a new instance of your server. Personally, I don’t
mind paying hourly as I can setup my server very quickly now. I can create,
setup and have my server good to go within 10 minutes now and that
includes the time takes for the server to initially setup. Going hourly or
monthly just depends on how willing you are to deal with steps to setup a
server for initial use. That is something I cannot answer for you and you
have to deem if it’s worth your time.
● Processor Speed and Cores
Processor Speed and Cores
For those that are unfamiliar, the processor is the main computing
unit in your server. It takes instructions, computes them and spits them out.
The biggest factor that you have to worry about is how many cores you are
paying for, since that is often how price is broken down. Right off the bat I
am letting you know that the law of diminishing returns is strong here. Asfar as bots go, they do not need a lot of processing power! If you break
down what a bot actually does, it takes very little processing power. For this
reason, you can get by with looking at purchasing a server package with 2
cores, and at max 4 cores! Anything higher and you are paying a premium
for snake oil. Here’s a nifty analogy for you...if you have a steady stream of
water that flows into a pipe that leads into a sewer, you are not going to
increase the rate at which it flows into the sewer by making the pipe larger.
The stream is still going to be the same size and the pipe will make no
difference, the only time it would make a difference is if the pipe was too
small to begin with.
As far as processor speed goes, anything over 2Ghz is well enough
and most server providers are offering good speeds regardless and they
just limit you on the amount of cores you are able to utilize.
● Storage
Storage
This is an easy section as you don’t need a lot of space to store your
bot. Most bots take a couple hundred MB max! In addition to that, storage
space has little to no impact on bot performance. You can get by easily with
a couple GB of space, but for sake of consistency, aim for the smallest size
at about 50GB from your server.
However, here is something that does matter, the type of storage!
There are two different types of storage on the market right now,
mechanical hard drives(HDD) and solid state hard drives(SSD). One is
significantly faster than the other and should be preferred in every scenario.
You want a server that has SSD storage in every circumstance. If your
server provider does not offer SSD storage space on your servers, you
need to switch right now. The only downside with SSD’s is their price, but
that barely comes to light when paying for servers. If you would like to learn
more about the differences, the link below is very useful and is a greatread:
http://www.storagereview.com/ssd_vs_hdd
SSD servers give you more speed for everything that is directly tied
to computer storage. That means installing programs, opening applications
and pulling information from the drive. This could quite possibly be an area
that gives you an advantage with your bots because it is able to run quicker
than bots that are on a normal HDD.
● RAM
RAM
I’m not going to go into the specifics of what RAM actually is and how
it works, that’s just not necessary for you to know. However, what is
important to know is how it matters and what we should be paying for as far
as the amount we need goes. RAM is important if we were running multiple
applications at once. For instance, you run a browser, a bot and maybe
Spotify on your computer. All of those things are taking up RAM and are
being accessed through RAM and so the more RAM you have, the more of
those applications you will be able to run at once. If you don’t have enough,
applications have to pull information from a lot farther away in your drive
space, slowing things down considerable.
In our situation, RAM isn’t super important since our servers are
nearly barebone and aren’t running lots of applications other than maybe a
browser and a few bots. For that reason, I would say that 4GB of RAM is
the minimum I would look for in a server, with a ceiling of about 8GB.
Anything more than that and you aren’t even utilizing it for your machine
and it does not give you any more performance.
● Network Speed and Location
Network Speed and Location
Network speed and location are one of the most important factors
that determine whether you are able to get 1 pair or 10 pairs of shoes. Youneed fast download speed, upload speed and ping.
Download speed is the speed that you are able to pull data to your
computer. This is the most apparent to us because it determines how fast
web pages get loaded on our computers and how fast we are able to
download programs or documents from the internet.
Upload speed isn’t as noticeable to most people as it is the speed at
which your computer sends data to another computer. This is often very
small sized requests and those are naturally sent very fast. Upload speed
is important, but in the grand scheme of things, download and ping are
above It.
There already was a slight description of what ping is above, but here
it is again quickly. Ping is basically your computer's reaction time. A lower
ping is always better than a higher ping. Anything below 10ms is great and
anything below 20ms is good. Anything higher than that and you are
limiting yourself, but there are good reasons to sometimes have a bit higher
of a ping for other benefits. I will get into that when I talk about proxies.
A reason that I mentioned location is that ping is heavily factored on
it. If you are in California and are trying to talk to a computer in New York,
naturally it is going to take longer for communication to happen. However, if
you are in San Diego and are trying to talk to a computer in San Francisco,
you are going to be at least ten times faster because of the shorter
distance.
If you are able to pick a server provider that is located closer to the
server location of sites you would like to access that puts you one step
ahead of everyone else. It is a small improvement that you would be
looking at, and we are talking about maybe 510ms, but it could very well
be the difference between checking out or not.
● Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred from one
computer to another. This is often included in pricing schemes of some
server providers and it is important to mention. It is a tough number to
calculate and thankfully most server providers give you a really nice
cushion here. Just as a quick example, I had run BetterNikeBot for an
entire week for restocks on Supreme and I used up about 10GB of
bandwidth. This included about 10 separate tasks with proxies.
If we scaled that number up, running 10 tasks for the whole month we
would need about 40GB of bandwidth. So, depending on how much you
are planning on running your bot I think anything around 100GB of
bandwidth would be good enough for most people.
● Recommended Server Specifications
Recommended Server Specifications
OS: Windows
Cores: 4 (2Ghz or higher)
RAM: 4GB
Storage: > 50GB SSD
Network Speed: 1k Down, 1k Up, < 15ms ping
Bandwidth: > 100GB
● Recommended Server Providers
Recommended Server Providers
https://clients.vpscase.com/aff.php?aff=1
http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7126082
https://aws.amazon.com/
http://www.softlayer.com/
http://www.ramnode.com/index.php
● Connecting to the Server
Connecting to the Server
As far as connecting to a server goes, they are all very universal. You
have three important fields. The IP, Username and Password and theinformation will look like this:
IP 192.xxx.x.xxx
Username Administrator
Password f45gsdrh5!
If you are using the recommended server provider, Vultr, the
username will always be Administrator and the password will be right below
that. You have to click the eye to show the password. All of this information
should be visible to you once your server is finally installed. You can double
click on your server and should see all of this information.
From there you will need a program to Remote Desktop into your new
server. On windows search for RDP and it should be the application called
Remote Desktop Connection or something very similar to that. If you are on
a Mac, I recommend going over to the app store and downloading
Microsoft Remote Desktop. Both applications are very easy to use as all
you have to do is input your information into their respective fields.
● The server usually takes around only five minutes to install!.
● You can watch as it installs and it will tell you when ready. Sometimes
the loading status gets stuck and if you refresh the page, it will say
that you server is actually ready.
● Customer Support is always active, and if you ever have an issue,
they respond within the hour for me. Don’t be afraid to contact them.
● AddToCart
Sometimes situations arise and you just don’t have the time to rent a
server, get proxies and set up a bot to get a pair of shoes. This stuff takes
time and that is where these atc services come into play. They take all of
that work and do it for you in exchange for payment. You pay someone
else to do what you would do and they get your address, credit card and
other billing information. Like I explained earlier in the document, you aregiving your information to them to put it in their bot setup and run a slot for
you.
Obviously, it’s going to cost money. Atc services have to pay for
servers, proxies and their own time and so that will sometimes be worth
more that you are willing to pay. On a hot release, atc services are usually
quite pricey since everyone without a bot would be looking at taking
advantage of them. This cost cuts into any sort of profit you would be
looking at if you wanted to resell the item and atc services know this and
price their service accordingly to each release. That is why if you are
looking to profit, atc isn’t what you are normally going to be looking for, but
do your research! Sometimes atc cost is lower with newer services popping
up trying to establish themselves and lots of atc services run deals where
you can win a slot or get a heavily discounted one. If you keep your eyes
open you may get lucky.
Do remember that these services are trying to build brand recognition
and so any usage they are getting that they can tweet out to followers is
good for them.
● Recommended ATC services
Recommended ATC services
@InstantCarts
I highly recommend Instant Carts as they are VTKverified, have very
high success rates and have very good customer service. I have used them
personally and I was not disappointed. If you have any questions before
purchasing, hit them with a direct message and they are happy to help.
When you purchase from them, make sure that you mention you heard
about them from me, @SwiftCop!
● @InstantCarts
● Proxies
ProxiesIf you have not read the quick explanation of what a proxy is from the
beginning of the document, I would highly recommend it. However, here is
a quick refresher. An internet proxy is a middle man to your computer and
another computer. It is used to provide anonymity to the user as it hides
their IP address, MAC address, location and internet traffic habits. This has
many uses and as sneaker enthusiasts we can leverage the advantage that
this anonymity grants us. Something that retailers like to do is to limit pairs
per store account. An easy way around this is to have multiple accounts
that connect from different locations making it appear that they are
separate individuals. For almost all scenarios this works to prevent your
orders from getting canceled for violating their policy. This is why proxies
are so important to us sneakerheads and I am going to explain a couple
thing about proxies to clear up any confusion.
● Ping
Ping
A very important factor to remember when dealing with connecting to
proxies is the fact that you are introducing another level for your internet to
have to go through. Naturally, this creates a delay and it takes longer for
your connection to be able to accomplish tasks. This increases reaction
time when trying to access websites or run your bot and that introduces a
higher ping. Now, if you are purchasing good proxies that are hosted by a
very good provider you will be minimizing the risks of increasing more
delay. Some of the best proxies that I have seen only add about 510ms to
your total ping time. However, if you are purchasing cheaper ones from a
lesser known provider you are running the risk having a much higher ping.
● Location
Location
This section ties really well with ping as closer locations reduce ping
time. Something that a lot of proxy providers offer is the ability to choosethe location you would like to have your proxies. If you know that you are
trying to purchase from Supreme NYC, their servers are actually located in
Jacksonville, Florida. So if you can get proxies located as close as possible
to that area, you will be faster than other bot users trying to connect from
much further locations.
If you would like to lookup location too, use a WHOIS search. Google
it and you can find tons of providers that take care of it. Just look for
location and you are good from there.
● Pricing
Pricing
This section is a little bit harder to hit the nail on the head, but it will
give you a good idea of what you should be looking for. For about 10
proxies you are are going to be spending around $30 which comes out to
around $3 per proxy. This is the upper range of what you should be paying
and anything in the $2$3 range should be considered better proxies. If you
are coming across proxies for around $1 each, then you know you aren’t
getting quality and you need to do your research on them and determine
why they are so cheap. Often, if you buy through a small seller on twitter or
a shady site, you are actually getting nondedicated proxies that get
banned in an instant by the retailers. There are some exceptions to this
thinking, but just keep it in mind when you notice cheaper than normal
proxies. See below for an explanation of why nondedicated proxies are not
optimal for our sneaker use.
● Dedicated vs NonDedicated
Dedicated vs NonDedicated
The idea vs dedicated and nondedicated is the same for proxies as it
is for servers. Having a dedicated proxy means that it is only private to you
and you get the maximum speeds that you are paying for. This also means
that you determine the usage of the proxy and if it gets banned, it is on yourown accord. You are not responsible for other people getting your proxy
banned. Other reasons to use private proxies(dedicated) is that nonprivate
proxies are often filled with other users that may be interested in
intercepting your internet traffic and that is a whole different security issue
that we don’t want to deal with. As resellers we are sending credit card data
over the internet and shared proxies do introduce the risk of someone
taking that data without you even knowing until it’s too late. Just to break it
down for you simply here is a chart comparing the two. Anonymous NotAnonymous
Costs more Much cheaper
● Recommended Proxy Providers
Recommended Proxy Providers
http://MyPrivateShoeProxy.net
http://mexela.com/
http://buyproxies.org/panel/aff.php?aff=2375
● Backdoors
There are two forms of ‘backdooring’. The one that most of you are
most likely familiar with is the physical version in which sneaker store
employees sell early stock to people for a higher than retail price before
release. If you are one of these people, I bet you are doing just fine.
However, this method isn’t what I want to be focusing on as there is a
virtual method that is called a backdoor as well.
To put it simply, backdooring a site involves creating a specialized
URL for a sneaker that automatically adds an item to your cart and takes
you to the checkout page, skipping the initial page most people would see.
A lot of times this means that you are actually able to checkout the item
before it is even available, but it is quite obvious if you checkout a shoe an
hour before it actually releases. An order like that would be cancelled.However, if you wait until as close as possible to release and then attempt
to checkout, your chances of having an order cancelled are severely
diminished.
There are important pieces of this URL that need to be found out
before a release as it isn’t the easiest process if you don’t know what to be
looking for. A lot of times the people who know how to get this link are not
giving it out for free and if they are, you have to be very good friends.
● Shopify
Shopify
Here we have one of the easiest site to backdoor at the current time.
Shopify is an an ecommerce company the programs point of sale and
online checkout systems for companies to purchase and use. The problem
with Shopify is that is has gotten to the point that it is so large, there is so
much documentation on how to take advantage of it. There are certain sites
that only use Shopify and the backdooring process is the same for them all
since it’s the same system. Sites like Concepts, Bodega, Extra Butter,
BAPE, and Packer Shoes all use Shopify and are relatively easy to
backdoor.
The really funny part is that Shopify almost tells us how to backdoor
them for releases. They help you preload your cart and use a permalink to
check out faster. This is useful for companies to have, but we can take
advantage of this knowledge. Below is more information on how to do so.
This is what a preloaded permalink for Shopify looks like:
http://your-store.myshopify.com/cart/70881412:1
The longer number after the cart is the product ID and the 1 after the
colon is the quantity of the item that you would like. This link would be
slightly different depending on what site you are trying to create the link for.
“Yourstore” would be replaced by whatever store you are trying to create
the backdoor for.So, now that you know that, there are three major things we need.
The store, the product id, and the quantity. Luckily two out of the three are
very easy. As far as the product ID goes, this can be the harder part
especially if the item is not listed.
If the item is already listed, we can do a quick look at the source code
of the webpage to find the product ID of the item we want. When at the
product page, go to the top URL and add “.xml” to the end of it. This should
open up a page that shows a ton of html web code. We are only interested
in a product ID, so scroll down until you see a ton of sizes listed out in the
code. If you take a little bit to skim through and find it, we can pull the
product ID out of the size of the shoe we would like. The product ID will be
different for every size in most situations. If it is the same, then you won’t
be able to actually pick a size and you may need to send a message to
customer support to have your size picked. If it gets to that point though,
you may have your order cancelled because they know how you obtained
that pair.
Solebox
If you would like to backdoor Solebox, make sure you already have
the link. If you don’t have the live link, then this method will not work. If you
know how to find the early link or the product page is live already, then you
are in the clear. For this tutorial, we will use this product and link:
http://www.solebox.com/airjordan1retrohighog49513.html
From here, we want to take a look at the page source again, so take a look
at the picture below:
From here we should see the source of the page and we are only
interested in one thing, the checkout link. Search, use ctrl+f, and look for
the string “addtocart”. You should see the below information:
Copy the link and it should look like this:
http://www.solebox.com/checkout/cart/add/uenc/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zb2xlYm94LmNvbS9haXItam9yZGFuLTEtcmV0cm8taGlnaC1vZy00OTUxMy5od
G1s/product/49509/form_key/dtzL07cjtZYntIhs/
We still need to get the correct size added to the cart, so we need to do
some more searching. Using search or ctrl+f, search for the string,
“Product.config”.
We can see available PID’s here and this is the information we want. There
is only one size available for this shoe, so we can obviously only cart that
one size right now. However, when there are more sizes, they are loaded
into the site. The PID in this case will be for size 45.5 which is 49517. Take the link above, and paste it
in the red portion of the link. Take the link
and enter it into your browser. The item should add to your cart and you are
free to checkout whenever you want. The final link is below:
http://www.solebox.com/checkout/cart/add/uenc/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zb2xlY
m94LmNvbS9haXItam9yZGFuLTEtcmV0cm8taGlnaC1vZy00OTUxMy5od
G1s/product/49517/form_key/dtzL07cjtZYntIhs/
Jimmy Jazz
If you would like to know how to backdoor this site, follow the step
below and you should be able to get any item in your cart. However, do not
checkout until the timer is done, or the item drops. It will get cancelled if
ordered early!
Head over to JJ and look for the link of the item that you want to
backdoor(bd). We will be using the below item for the tutorial:
http://www.jimmyjazz.com/mens/footwear/jordanretro9lowsneaker/832822401?color=Blue
From here, we want to find the special
product ID for the shoe. To do this, we
can either look at the source, or use
inspect element on the sizes. For this
guide, I will just right click and choose
inspect element over one of the sizes ofthe shoe.
This step will pull up a table that looks like this:
Take the item_code for the size that you want and input it into the link
below where the * is:
http://www.jimmyjazz.com/cartrequest/cart/add/*/1
Your link should look like this for a size 9.5:
http://www.jimmyjazz.com/cartrequest/cart/add?11237205/1
Take that link, and enter it into your browser. You should get a page with a
bunch of code on it. Don’t worry, you don’t need to understand it as this
was the last step in the process. Go check your cart now and you should
have the item in cart.
Once again, for this site, do not checkout until the product is live. You will
get cancelled.
● ENDClothing
ENDClothing
*Quick note about this one. Some people report it works, others are
reporting it no longer works. It might be location based, but I am looking
into it. May be patched, so don’t get frustrated trying too hard.
ENDLaunches is a different site as well, these are not the same*
This site is also fairly easy to backdoor as they don’t really hide
anything from you either. The only thing that may be struggle would be
getting the correct size added to your cart, as it is kind of a guessing game.
However, this is how you start the backdoor...take any product with a
release time off of END’s page. You can find them under the ‘Latest’ tab
and under upcoming releases. Click on any of the product under that page
and we may continue from there.
We need to right click on your mouse and select ‘view page source’
again. We should see a ton of HTML code. Don’t be afraid, it is really easy
to read. We need to find the checkout link which is actually really easy todo! Use your find feature in your browser(control+ f for chrome), and
search for ‘form_key’. You should have 2 results. The first one is not what
we want, we want the second one that is within a script. See below for what
I am looking at. Yours will not look the same as I had to break up the link to
fit it in a nice picture for you.
This is our link! Copy the whole link and paste it into your URL bar,
but do not hit enter or search for it.Take a look at it closely. We will not
change it other than one thing. Do you see where within the url there are
six numbers? We will be replacing the “374454” with another number. This
is where the fun comes in because we actually don’t know the number we
are replacing with. However, we do know is that it is close. We want to try
different numbers that are lower than this number, but within two places of
each other. So, what I mean by that is you take the last two digits of the
PID you have and you go from 18 to 16 to 14 to 12. After doing this myself,
I was able to find the size that loaded in my cart, “374445”. You want to
refresh your cart on END after hitting enter on the link after changing the
number. After some trial and error you should be able to check your cart
and it will look similar to mine. That’s it! All you have to do is checkout and
you are good as long as they don’t cancel, but END does not cancel
backdoor orders as long as you don’t order 2 weeks ahead of time. I have
not tried that, so try with caution. Checking out a few hours before is best
advised.
Here is a list of sites that this method has been confirmed to work on(being
updated):
http://www.urbanjunglestore.com/ https://www.thegoodwillout.com/
https://www.5pointz.co.uk/ https://en.titolo.ch/
● Other Sites
Other Sites
Now, I cannot go on explaining every site backdoor method there is.However, a reason that I chose to share END with you is that the process
is very similar on sites that do allow backdoored orders. I do not have a list
as it changes all the time, some lose access and others gain access to
being backdoored, but the process is always almost the same. You need
two important things.
1. The cart link
2. The PID
Once you have those two things you are able to backdoor maybe
80% of websites. The others take a lot more knowledge and know how that
is almost too in depth for an in depth guide. You need some more
advanced web knowledge of web coding and some scripting to be
successful for these sites. If you have to go through that much trouble
though, there is a high chance that the site would just cancel your order
before release anyways!
● Page Monitoring
Page Monitoring
Now, this is a section that will highlight copping shoes manually. Yes,
you can have the perfect bot setup, perfect proxies and perfect server,
however a lot of the ‘lowkey’ sites that drop some releases do not support
bots. There is not enough traffic on these sites for bot creators to support.
However, if you are looking for the bot that supports the most ‘lowkey’
sites, refer back to AnotherNikeBot AIO that is linked earlier in this
document. They handle a lot of sites that are not supported by other bots.
If you subscribe to OneStopCop(OSC) already, you already have lists
of all the lowkey sites. This section will highlight what you can do with
those to increase your chances of copping manually. However, if you do
not subscribe to OSC, you need to find sites that are dropping your product
that are lesser known. This is often smaller boutique shops and although
they have smaller stocks, they are not tweeted out by the major linkaggregators and chances of being able to successfully purchase increase
significantly.
Now, let’s assume you have a list of about 50 sites that are releasing
the product you want, be it shoes or clothing. There is no possible way you
will be able to monitor every single one of those sites if they are not telling
you when they are going to let the product go live. A lot of these stores
have such little stock as I said before and would like to have everyone have
a fair shot at purchasing if they are monitoring that store’s page. This is
where the jig comes in.
I am going to mention a
chrome extension that I use to
accomplish the upcoming tasks I
will be talking about and it is called
Distill. Find it at the link below.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/distillwebmonitor/inlikjemeeknofckkjolnjbpehgadgge?hl=e
n
Now, let us get started with how to use this amazing extension. What
this will do for you is either monitor a whole webpage for changes, or just a
small selection of the webpage, you pick! You can do even more with it
such as monitoring for certain keywords that update to the page, choose
how often to update the page, send notifications to your phone, email and
computer!
To set monitoring up on your computer, you are going to want to go
to the product page of the product that you are trying to buy. This can be
either an actual product page, or it can be a search page specified with
your search terms. For example, take a look at the screenshot below:
This is The Good Will Out, and the page we would have been
monitoring before release. Now, assuming this product did not drop
already, we would have been on this page already and it would have saidcoming soon or something of the sort. With Distill, monitoring this page
would have been easy. We would choose, ‘select parts of this page’ in
distill and monitor this section of the product page:
With only this section selected, Distill
would send us a notification if anything in this
area changed. The important thing that we
want to focus on is that we do not want fake
changes in the page to trigger Distill, so we
limit how much we monitor. If we monitor the
whole page, any change at all on the page
will send us an update and that most likely
will be a false update.
Now, that is a process that you repeat
for each site that you would like to monitor. In addition to making sure that
you have the correct portions monitored, we also would like to change the
monitor rate. I would recommend monitoring each page with a 10 second
interval. You can lower the interval, but that increases the amount of false
notifications if the page is updating frequently.
Now, if there is not a product page, you can still use Distill! Nearly
every site has a search bar or search page and we can do the same
process depicted above to that page as well. Input the product you are
interested in on the site, and make sure to hit enter to search for it. On
TGWO, this is what that page looks like:
We can do the same process above for this page as it will update
with any product that releases under my search terms, which was just
“nmd”. In this case, the product went live already and is showing, however
if it was not live and if we were monitoring this page we would have been
updated. For this page it is important to monitor the whole page as we do
not know where the shoe will pop up here. You may get some false alerts ifothers shoes load, but you will be just have to be willing to deal with a few
of those if you are monitoring web pages for changes!
As far as monitoring goes, that is the extent of what you need to
know. It is very easy and the initial time it may take to set up about 25
websites might be 25 minutes, but it is worth it if no bots can run on the
site. You will get updates before the major tweeters even know about it and
you will be one of the first few in line ready to cop.
● Restocks
Restocks
Now, as far as restocks are concerned, you can use the same setup
you were using to initially monitor the sneakers if you were using Distill. If
you had monitored only part of the page, you will have to go back into the
Distill settings and change the parts you want to monitor after the item has
sold out. If you were monitoring the whole page, you will still get a
notification for the item restocking on the site.
I recommend letting distill run 24/7 for all possible restocks. This is
the only way to know about any as by the time it would get tweeted out,
stock will be sold out.
● Footsites
Footsites
Whenever I mention ‘footsites’ keep in mind that I am talking about
the four major retailers Foot Locker, Finishline, Champs and Footaction.
These sites often release most releases that drop on Nike and they also
have their own special models that release along with specialized
colorways. As far as these sites go, there are some tips that you should
look into following if you are trying to purchase lot of pairs off of these sites.
The foot sites only allow one purchase per person, but obviously we
know ways around this! To get multiple pairs off one site such as Foot
Locker this is what we need to be successful in getting multiple pairs:No matter if you have ANB, EasyCop, BNB or any other bot, there is
a chance of getting your orders cancelled if you are buying more than one
pair. If you do the following steps, you should not have a problem.
The key to getting multiple pairs is to make it look like there is a
different person ordering every shoe. Every account that you run should be
on a different proxy. So if you are running 10 accounts on Footlocker, you
want 10 different proxies. You don’t have to worry about using them on
other sites as there is no way to tie them together that way. Feel free to use
those same 10 proxies on another foot site. By using a proxy for each
account, it looks like whoever purchased that shoe is coming from different
locations. This is the first key.
The next thing that you are going to want to take care of is to use a
guest account or a mix of guest accounts and real accounts. With guest
accounts there is no way of them knowing that you have made the
purchase on another guest account unless they tie your information
together from something else that identifies you such as address, credit
card or IP address.
A major cause leading to cancelled orders is having 10 pairs of shoes
shipped to the same looking address. This is immediately flagged in the
system and then most likely cancelled by the system itself, or they have an
employee that goes through and cancels these multiple orders. If you do
not want to be caught by the automatic system, then you can do something
that has been confirmed working for a while now. You want to change up
small instances in your address. This include changing small parts of your
address that still make the item deliverable, but make it look different to an
automatic system. Thing like Road can be changed to Rd., Street to St.,
and many others. Another tip that I have seen people use is to add a
second line for their address and add something similar to Room B, or
Room A. The address can remain the same, you are just adding thisdistinction so it makes it appear that there are actually multiple people living
in the household! Don’t abuse this by making it look like you have one room
for every single letter in the alphabet as I am unsure if that would work. Use
sparingly for more success.
One last key is to use a separate credit card for every order. Your
billing address can be the same, however you want to make sure the
shipping address is the one being switched up. One card per order means
you should be using as many cards as possible per each site. If you have 5
cards, you can get away with 5 pairs on each of the sites giving you a total
of about 20 pairs. Now, if you want a trick to get as many cards as you
want, take a look at the next section.
● Privacy Multiple Cards International Purchases
Privacy Multiple Cards International Purchases
If you are not aware, there is a recently started company that is
basically a reseller's dream. This service allows you to create a unique card
number for every purchase. Yes, you heard that right. You can have as
many cards as you would like! Below is the link to take a look at the site.
It is currently invite only, but if you DM them on Twitter they give you
access! Then you are allowed to refer only one other person to the service.
It is very lowkey right now.
All this service does is connect to your bank account and it is able to
pull money from there to add funds to a card that you can choose as a
burner card or as a card with a limited amount of funds. You install the
chrome extension to help you along the way and it appears in credit card
entry locations on whatever site you are trying to purchase from.
To use it in association with a shoe bot, you should create multiple
cards with a specified amount to be most successful and then you may
have as many cards as you like. If you have questions, feel free to send
them an email or DM as they are very customer service oriented and theysolve all issues very quickly!
● International Shipping Reshippers
International Shipping Reshippers
If you did not know already, there is an easy way to have purchases
from companies that only ship to EU or UK to ship to the US. Yes, you
have to go through another service, but it is fairly simple. For those
releases on sites such as Adidas EU or UK that do not ship to US, these
companies are vital to our success. To break it down simply, you register
an account with these companies, they give you a specialized address to
use that works in the specified location that you need it to work in, you have
your item shipped their, they ship the item to you in the US after you pay a
fee.
Very simply to use and the costs are not terribly high. One company
called ReShip charges a $5 signup fee and then $5 per package that you
need shipped. Here is a quick breakdown of their prices and fees.
Additional price and fees can be found at their site below:
Now, this is not the only service that does this. I cannot list them all
however I do know that this is one of the most popular. You can take a
search around the find a service that you prefer, but I am just opening your
eyes up to the possibility of a reshipping service. This means that you can
now participate in all international releases and drops, this is huge! Try to
keep this method on the downlow as very many people are not aware that
this is a possibility and a lot of releases are actually easier internationally.
One more thing to keep in mind is that you most likely need an EU or UK
form of payment to be able to purchase shoes in these locations! However,
if you are using Privacy from the above section, they actually support
international sales. There are other services that do the same such as
Entropay.
To save you some time, here is a list I compiled of other sites that performthe same service.
Web Page Source Checking Shopify
If you did not know already, it is very easy to check the
stock/inventory of an item on certain sites. One of the easiest is certainly
shopify sites since that info is visibly available to us. You can take a look at
the source code, but if you just are not feeling that, here is a better way.
Download the below chrome extension:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/shopifyinventoryviewer/oglgfnmfncmdenmgcloaifkmlek
bbflf?hl=en
Whenever you are on a Shopify site, you can click on the barcode
extension that is now in your extension bar and check the inventory of any
product! Here is what it would look like for a random item that I pulled up.
If the site is not Shopify it will not work. However if you would like to
try it on another site, you have to do so manually. If you are feeling spicy,
go check a random shoe store online and look at the source code of the
page. Just right click and select view source. If there is a table that lists out
all the sizes available for the shoe, there is most likely an inventory count
available for you to see as well. You just have to look closely!
● Bot Usage Tips
Bot Usage Tips
There is a lot to cover in this section and so I will just bullet point
some of the more important concepts to keep in mind. If you have any
questions, feel free to drop it in the Q & A document here:
● Let’s start with the most basic, if you are using a bot, you should be
using a server and proxy for maximum results. Checkout the server
and proxy section above again if you happened to skip it.
● A bot does not guarantee you a shoe, ever! It only increases your
chances.
● Sometimes keywords are not available for a release. Use your head!If a site is dropping a White NMD runner from Adidas, you can bet
that Adidas+NMD+runner is going to be a very good set of keywords.
Double check the site to make sure no other item would match these
keywords first though as you can accidentally check out another
shoe. You do not have to rely on bot creator’s keywords as they just
use the same logic most of the time.
● If you only have 10 proxies, you should really only be running 20
tasks max. The more tasks/proxy, the slower your proxies connection
speed will be.
● As a caveat to the above bullet, you want to have as many tasks as
possible for more chances. If you can run 20 tasks for one site, you
can bet you are going to get some successful checkouts. You have to
play the odds. You would want at least 10 proxies for 20 tasks. Just
remember, 2 tasks per proxy. ● If you need multiple emails for account creation take this tip...
SwiftCop@gmail.com is the same as SwiftCop+1@gmail.com. All
mail is forwarded to the main email. You can do this with any number.
SwiftCop+34556@gmail.com will still work the same way. Most sites
recognize it as a new user!
● You can also do this: Swift.Cop@gmail.com or
S.w.i.f.t.c.o.p@gmail.com. It all is routed to the main email address
and is also recognized as a new user.
● This is not bot related, but you can use the above email tip to hoard
tons of Adidas 15% off coupons from their sign up bonus. These
codes can be used on restocks and some really nice shoes
occasionally!
● Take a look at your checkout delay settings in your bot. Sometimes
they are a little too slow and you want to increase your chances of
purchasing, so lower is better. However, if you go too low, and a site
cancels orders, they will most likely recognize that you were using abot and cancel. ANB is more complicated to change, but for BNB
users, you can easily change your delay from 1000ms 3000ms(1
second 3 seconds). Remember, lower is faster! Keep it low because
I would much rather have an order cancelled than an order not go
through because the item is sold out.
● When purchasing Supreme and the keywords do not work, as they
often do, be ready to get the link of the product. If you can enter the
early link in your bot fast enough, your bot still check out faster than
manual! Swift fingers are important!
● Always start your bot 510 minutes before a release. That lets you get
logged in, it gives you more of a chance if the site goes down and you
can test that your proxies are connected and that the tasks are setup
correctly
● Early links are always better than keywords!
● 403 forbidden means you got your proxy banned. If you don’t use
proxies, then you got your own IP banned.
● If you are hopping to and from server instances, make sure you are
backing up your data! It saves so much more time and you do not
have to reenter card details every time you want to reinstall your
bot.
● You can let your bot run for restocks if you do not mind burning
proxies. Some people run their bots 24/7 hoping for a restock and
guess what, some people cook! Nicekicks is an example of a site that
restocks often and people eat up those restocks like nothing. If you
don’t run your bot, you don’t have a chance! Proxies are cheap
compared to the shoes that you have a potential to make a profit on.
● How to know whether to sleep or buy
How to know whether to sleep or buy
A huge part of the game is being able to determine what releases youshould be going all in on, and what releases you should be avoiding all
together. Just as a sign of caution, this can be tricky at times! Let’s take a
look back at the Nike Air Max x Supreme collaboration from a few weeks
ago now. At first it seemed like an amazing opportunity to make some
money. Nike and Supreme? Holy Cow! However, there were a couple
pieces of information that you had to pay attention to in order to know if you
should have bought or not. Here are some things to consider when thinking
about going all in, or watching from the sidelines.
● Price
Price
One of the most important factors to take into consideration is how
much the item will cost at retail price. Let’s take a look at how the resell
market was a few years ago with Nike pricing Jordans around the $150
mark. According to documents released today(6/1/16) by StockX, the total
amount made by resellers in December of 2014 was about 1.3 million
dollars. The year after the resell market only profited about 400 thousand
dollars during the same time frame. You can find more info here:
Now, what is different between the two years that would cause a one
million dollar price difference? Think about it! Nike recently started raising
its retail prices as well as stock numbers and it has been hurting the resell
market bad. Jordan’s used to be bread and butter, but they have
diminished to smaller profits and now you really have to take into
consideration what releases you are going for because of the high retail
cost. Margins are becoming slimmer and profit is becoming more risky.
If the retail cost is too high, resell will also be high, but you will have
less buyers willing to purchase at those higher prices unless that item is
really worth something or it is an exclusive item. Most people are not going
to pay more than $400 for a general release Jordan and I think that is
something we all can agree on. Why pay so much for something thateveryone else will have?
So, if the item is not exclusive, has near unlimited production, or has
no kind of draw, a high retail price is most likely going to kill any resell. Let’s
https://stockx.com/sneakerblog/2016/06/01/thestateofjordanresellspring2016/
take a look at an item that contradicts this viewpoint. The Jordan 4
Premium sneakers that have been releasing are retailing around $400. And
that is expensive as far as retail is concerned. However, guess what....they
are extremely limited, they have huge draw because of their specialized
materials and they are exclusive. These shoes resell for about $700 at the
current market rate and are an exception to the typical high retail cost
theory that I mentioned before. It’s all about analyzing the item to see if
those categories match an item that would typically resell.
Just to give you an example of an item that fits right into this model
that you should not buy, take a look at the Supreme Vans that dropped a
few weeks ago. Some people thought resell was going to be very good,
however I just looked on in disappointment. Taking a look at the shoe, first
of all, the price was way more expensive than a typical pair of Vans. Huge
flag! There is no kind of draw to the shoe. Why would you want to own
them? They do have a Supreme logo on the back, but other than that, they
are about as plain as can be. That is awesome as far as wearability is
concerned, but we are concerned with resell. We all know that they only
released at Supreme retail locations as well as online. They were limited in
production, but the other two factors outweighed this fact. Just because
something is limited, does not mean it will resell! Remember back when
Cam’ron released the Reebok Purple Ventilator and it was limited to some
200 pairs. However, resell was dead a week after release. There was no
draw to the shoe even though production was limited and retail was a very
reasonable price. Just take a look at the item analytically and see if the
factors that determine resell align with similarly priced items. It is tough atfirst, but eventually you will be able to see how retail affects resell.
● Quantity
Quantity
In the previous section I had mentioned that a lower quantity does not
imply a higher resell value. This is very true, but it is not normal. There are
very few cases where something is highly limited and it does not have a
market. I don’t think I can list too many examples, so I will spare you the
trouble.
In general, if an item is limited, go for it. Chances are there are
people that wanted the item, but because of the limited market, they lucked
out and are looking to pay resell. Just do not take lower production
numbers as the only factor in determining if an item will have resell or not.
Keep in mind price and the uniqueness of the item.
● Hype
Hype
Here we have one of the most important factors in determining resell
prices. You have to know where to look if you want to figure this out. There
are different markets and different groups interested in different releases.
One site may cater towards more flashy items, while another site is really
into the jean jackets or something. Know how to look around! You have to
hawk Twitter, Reddit, NikeTalk and any other place you can find people
talking about the drop. You need to see the most hyped items and mark
them down. The more hype around an item, the more people are trying to
purchase. With more people trying to purchase, the more failures there are
going to be. That all translates over to a higher valued resell market for the
item and steady prices, which is very good for us! That is the extent of this
section as it just takes time to learn how to dig for hype. You will learn if
you just read reactions, first impressions and maybe even YouTube videos.● PreSales
PreSales
This is one of those factors that is really in the middle. A high presale
price does not necessarily mean the item is guaranteed to have a high
resell price. However, it is a very good indication of what people are willing
to pay. If there are preorders for an item up and they are not being sold,
just sitting there, that is a sign that the price posted is too high, or the item
is not hyped enough. If either of these are true, it might be best to avoid.
For nearly every release there is going to be items that get sold early,
posted online before the drop or just somehow fall off a truck. This is a very
good way to see how the market price will be set as a lot of preorders
actually set market price since they are listed first. Just keep it in mind and
check eBay as it has one of the largest user bases to judge off of.
● Where and How to Sell Quickly
Where and How to Sell Quickly
Some of this information may be known already, but I do want to
cover it so that it is still documented information. So, assuming you got the
purchase, you got the order confirmation and you are in the clear...what do
you do now? I have an answer for you, list the item right away! No, it is not
in hand yet, but here is the thing. With limited releases and even general
releases, the amount of hype during the same day of launch is much higher
than any other time. Those that strike out go right to the resellers and look
to secure their pair the same day.
If you list your pair the same day of the drop, your chances of selling
your pair before you have them in hand is extremely high. If you start sitting
on your shoes past a week after the drop, you are doing something very
wrong! After about the first week, no one is hyped about the release
anymore, collectors already have their pairs and you are selling to people
that are really late to the game. Those people that are late are also muchmore willing to wait for a lower price to fall into their lap. So in the end, if
you don’t list right away, you will be getting less money!
On the day of the release, you have your order confirmation and the
shoe type that you ordered. That is enough information to sell the item on
most sites and you just need to remember to block out any order numbers
so your order does not get cancelled before it even gets to you.
As far as sites go, you want to hit up every site possible. Now that
includes eBay, Twitter, Facebook groups and craigslist. I know there are
more, but these are some of the most popular and it will help you so much
to get your pair sold. As far as pricing goes, you don’t want to heavily
undercut other buyers. That leads to less money for you, less money for
them and you are also helping to decrease the price of the overall item as
well. Undercut slightly and you will still pull interested buyers. If anyone
makes a good offer, you can always take that as well.
After all of that, and you didn’t sell your shoe within the first few days,
you are in a bit of trouble. You will want to really step your game up to get
the item sold now. From here you need to make sure to take updated
photos of the item you are trying to sell, update your listings, update your
price and push it out as fast as possible. In nearly every case, the price of a
shoe never increases unless it is over a time frame of multiple months. It is
never a good idea to sit on an item or a pair of shoes unless they are
already super valuable.
To sum it all up in a simple paragraph, sell same day, even before
you get the shoes. Sell with a competitive price and if you get a good offer,
take it. It will be the highest offer you will receive since it is the day or a few
days after the drop. Post your item everywhere you can and increase
exposure.
● Protecting Yourself When Selling Online
Protecting Yourself When Selling OnlineIf you don’t already know, the internet is full of cheaters, scams
and others that really don’t care about you or your money. Sadly, this is
how things are sometimes and as resellers, this is something that we also
have to deal with. There are very sophisticated scammers, and then there
are just people that don’t know what they are doing, but they still get away
with it. The way the system is setup currently, the buyer is always right.
This is the case for any PayPal transaction, any eBay transaction and any
other transaction
basically everywhere. The seller almost always takes the fault, however,
we can do things to mitigate this risk and actually protect ourselves.
The first thing that will really help you is tagging your pictures. If you
take a piece of paper, write your username on it, and place it in the photos
you are using to sell the item, that proves you own the item. In addition, if
you can make it look nicer, it helps other people trust you since they can
confirm you actually have the item. It is good for a buyer’s peace of mind.
The second thing is to properly describe the item you are selling.
Whether it is through an eBay description, a PayPal invoice or another
site.... you absolutely need to make your description clear, concise and
apparent to what you are trying to do. You are trying to sell a highly limited
item for a certain price and you need to portray that as accurately as
possible. Leave no room for error to have PayPal or anyone else to find
you at fault for a bad sale.
The above items were before a sale, however there are a number of
things you can do the protect yourself after the sale is made. One of the
most important things to remember is that if you are selling through PayPal
or eBay, you need to use signature confirmation to be eligible for seller
protection through both services after a certain price point. That price point
is about $250 and that is essentially resale on any general resell Jordan, so
you need to be purchasing signature confirmation on nearly every shoe youresell!
If the item you are selling is worth a bit more and you are worried
about it becoming damaged in the mail, you can include insurance, but that
really does not do anything for you and your mail carrier will find every way
to not get you that money. It usually isn’t the best idea to purchase the
insurance since your package will most likely be good upon arrival as long
as you packaged it correctly.
Another thing that you need to take care of if the item is expensive or
over the $400 mark or so...record yourself packing the item! Print your
shipping label, show that in a video as you package the item in the shipping
container. Send this video as evidence if anything ever comes up. Leave it
on your computer for a bit and if you don’t have to use it, even better! It is
your own personal insurance.
As far as purchases over $500 go, I really recommend trying to get
that cost gifted, or friends and family. Here is the thing, if the item is bought
with anything else, a chargeback is very possible. And you won’t get it right
away, you will get it a few weeks down the line when you think you are in
the clear...If you sold your pair of Yeezy’s for 1k to someone and a few
weeks later you get a chargeback, you are going to be hurting, no doubt
about it. Try and get the cost gifted to give you peace of mind because a
buyer can open up a case up until 40 or so days.
Do the above and you should be protected as much as possible. In
many cases the above are enough and if you are not fully comfortable with
it, then stick to selling locally. There is still a huge local market if you are in
a city and you can take home even more money since you are getting
straight cash and don’t have to pay any seller fees.
Taxes and Fees
Just to enlighten you about a topic that I think
too many people ignore... seller fees. When you are selling online, you arelosing at least 10% of the sale to your selling platform, that is almost always
guaranteed. Now, if you can circumvent that by selling only through PayPal
invoice, selling locally and selling on Facebook groups, you will be able to
keep more money in your pocket. But, there is one important thing to
remember...platforms such as eBay are almost always worth it because
they open your item up to a much wider audience. If you have international
sales enabled as well as being able to use the international shipping center
selected, you are opening a whole other market up for selling. In some
situations, the 10% is worth the cost. But keep in mind it isn’t always.
One other thing to consider if you are selling on eBay, is opening up a
store. If you sell enough to pay the $20 a month for an eBay store, you can
get a few percentages of fees taken off of your total. You also get some
other benefits, but reducing fees for only $20 a month is a really good
move.
In addition to the seller fees, remember that shipping comes out of
your total profit too, so whenever you get the chance, choose the best
option for the item you are selling. Always get signature confirmation, but if
you can purchase a slower shipping speed to save you a couple bucks, go
for it! USPS shipping speeds are all very good even for the cheapest
standard shipping option. Personally, I like to ship priority since I like to
have my buyer get the item as soon as possible, less time I have to worry
about it.
Another thing to think about, there are also taxes to take care of. In
case you didn’t know, you are legally obligated to report any earnings to the
IRS. At the end of the year you should be paying taxes on the profit you
make selling shoes. Now, here is where things get tricky. PayPal records
all of your transactions and reports them at the end of the year. You are
going to get a document from them that shows how much you should be
reporting to the IRS. What you should be doing, is tracking all of your sales that you are making, how much gross and how much profit. You need this
information to claim that not all the money that entered your PayPal was
entirely profit. Otherwise you are looking at a very expensive bill from the
IRS and you do not want that. If you don’t think you can handle that, you
can outsource the work to a financial consultant and they can help you take
care of that, but it is very serious business.
If you are only making a couple thousand for the year on reselling,
the risk isn’t too high for getting caught. However, if you are pulling in like
20k a year and the bank and the IRS do not know where that is coming
from...that will lead to an investigation that will have you paying a nice fine
and a large bill. I know we are all in it for the big bucks, so if you are only
making a couple thousand a year, you need to step your game up.
In summary, reduce fees, reduce shipping costs, ship with signature
confirmation, record your sales in an excel spreadsheet and pay your
taxes