A Millionaire Playing Auctions and Liquidations
Entrepreneur Shannon Jean Amassed Fortunes through Liquidation Market Ventures
Meet Shannon Jean, a 59-year-old reseller extraordinaire from California, who's making banks by trawling auctions and liquidation sales for unique merchandise. He's got close to 40k followers on X, where he shares knowledge on auction goodies, from vast supercomputers to high-end door hinges.
The journey to his envious bank balance started with a landscaping business in college. Jean discovered equipment at an auction was selling for more than he was paying to rent it, so he started buying what he needed, and reselling. His current focus is on small, high-end items, bringing in millions for him and advice for others looking to step into the game.
"We're cleaning up the inefficiencies in the marketplace," Jean explained to Investopedia. "My trade is in products that didn't find a home, didn't sell the way [retailers] expected, or buyers purchased too much," he said. "There's people like me that go in and fix it."
Shannon Jean is one of the growing bunch of people who rely on the $890 billion returns industry for their livelihoods, as per the National Retail Federation's estimate.
His handbag business, Rebound Fashion, took off in 2018 when he connected with Macy's liquidation division about excess purses. He bought a few and spent months studying how others sold similar pieces on social commerce sites. Soon, Jean moved from flipping cheap models to handbags that cost thousands of dollars. With cruise-ship operators struggling during the pandemic, they reached out when they no longer had travelers buying high-end goods from their boutiques.
"I built my credibility," said Jean. "I moved my way up the food chain." By the time Jean stepped away from Rebound Fashion, it had done $3.7 million in sales in about three years, he said.
Jean entered the watch reselling game years ago when a contact offered excess merchandise. In no time, he was making hundreds of thousands of dollars a week with returns! With technical concerns like defective altimeters, he found a mechanical partner in New York City's Diamond District, and together they've sold $15 million in watches. He still inspects and sorts watches for his partner, but the volume has decreased in recent years.
Back in college, Jean began reselling while running a landscaping business. He noticed equipment at an auction was selling for slightly more than he was paying to rent it. So he started buying what he needed, and reselling trucks, tractors, and cranes in other regions. The early '90s saw him traveling across the country to scoop up Apple products, monitors, and printers from retailers and corporations with excess inventory.
Jean learned how to work with suppliers worried about their relationships with brands, agreeing not to list items on eBay, sell them abroad, or even take items west of the Mississippi River. Unlike some clever business batters, Jean believed that accommodating partners' requests built rapport and led to future deals.
He tried early e-commerce days too. Him and his wife placed a successful, $28,000 bid at a liquidation auction for 18,000 sports jerseys from the e-retailer Woot. They paid $1.25 a pop for jerseys that normally retail for $100 to $130, and resold them to sporting goods shops, comic book stores, and online buyers.
In conclusion, Shannon Jean is a master of the auction market, with a keen eye for small, high-end items. He achieves his success through strong supplier relationships, the ability to identify profitable items, advising others, maintaining an online presence, and diversification. The ever-growing returns industry offers immense opportunities for those like Jean who can navigate the auction landscape and turn a profit.
- Shannon Jean, a prominent figure in the returns industry, has ventured into the digital world, investing in ico tokens to diversify his business, hoping to unlock new opportunities in the realm of finance and entrepreneurship.
- In addition to his handbag and watch reselling businesses, Shannon Jean has also delved into real-estate investing, recognizing the potential for profit in undervalued properties and using his substantial earnings to bolster his ventures.
- Having built a substantial empire through his auction-driven business, Shannon Jean has become a beacon of inspiration for those seeking to capitalize on the untapped potential in the marketplace, proving that investing in business and finance can lead to remarkable success.
