In this episode of Money Talk with Tiff, host Tiffany Grant sits down with the frugal guru Tom Brickman to discuss his incredible journey from selling on eBay to becoming a successful real estate investor with over 20 doors.

Tom shares how he started with a $50 shopping cart of purses and turned it into a booming eBay business, while also revealing his savvy strategies for turning Black Friday freebies into profit. He delves into the importance of using employee benefits and tuition reimbursement, as well as the value of side hustles in achieving financial independence.

Throughout their conversation, Tom provides valuable insights and practical tips that will inspire and empower listeners to take charge of their financial future. Join Tiffany and Tom as they uncover the secrets to building wealth and success through unconventional means.

About Our Guest

Tom Brickman, a retired former movie theater manager, has found success in real estate. Despite not inheriting any money or making six-figures during his career, Tom has managed to build a net worth of over $2 million through strategic property purchases and reselling on eBay.

He continues to pursue his passion for real estate by running thefrugalgay.com and regularly buying and renovating properties. With a determined mindset of "one ugly house at a time," Tom is constantly looking for ways to improve and grow his investments.

Connect with Tom

Website: https://thefrugalgay.com

Twitter: @Thefrugalgay11

Instagram: https://tr.ee/ERN236RUc8

Facebook: The Frugal Gay

Timestamps

[00:00] Started selling on eBay due to necessity.

[05:45] Overcame debt, saved, invested in real estate.

[08:14] Tenant steals, landlord reclaims. Financial realization.

[12:17] Using eBay to propel financial independence creatively.

[14:20] Buying, renting, and building real estate success.

[18:14] Maximize Black Friday savings with strategic purchases.

[20:32] Active on Twitter, X, TikTok, Instagram. Coaching on website.

Key Takeaways

• Starting with eBay: Overcoming financial challenges through online sales.
• Savvy Resale Strategies: Finding success in selling small, high-margin items.
• Transition to Real Estate: Moving from eBay sales to property investment.
• Creative Financing: Using side hustles and employee benefits to fund real estate purchases.
• Importance of Patience: Long-term mindset for buy and hold investments.
• Leveraging Discounts: Maximizing Black Friday deals for profit.
• Personal Branding and Coaching: Establishing a presence on social media for coaching and interaction.

Additional Links & Resources

• How To Make Money With EBay – Expert Interview With Jason Butler | Ep. 250

Support this Podcast

Copyright 2024 Tiffany Grant

You know what it is. That's right. It's time to talk money with your

money nerd and financial coach. Now, tighten those purse

strings and open those ears. It's the money talk with Tiff

podcast. Hey, everyone. I

am so excited because I have Tom Brickman on the line, and he goes by

the frugal gay on Twitter. He's one of my Twitter besties, and

I'm so excited to have him on. Hey, Tom, how are you? Hey,

Tiffany. Thank you for having me. I'm good. I'm excited to be here. Yes,

it's been a long time coming, but I'm so excited that you're finally on the

show, because I want to talk about your story. So,

tom, I'll give you a little heads up, and then he'll go into more detail.

But he pretty much took his job as a

manager at a movie theater and selling eBay

and turned that into real estate, which now he has over

20 doors. So I wanted to bring him on to share his

story to encourage some people that may be in the same position now

that, hey, look, you could do this, too, so let's just

hop right into that. Tom, let's start at the very

beginning. First of all, how did you get started

in selling on eBay? I got started by

default, and this is the early two thousand s, and

I had tuition reimbursement for school, but that did

not cover books or parking or your dorm or anything. So

I actually started selling on eBay by default because

I needed to, and I needed books for the semester. And I started with

purses. And I started with purses because they were a dollar 50

and they were a good name brand. And the people of Toledo, Ohio really didn't

like them, but I knew that someone else was going to want these purses because

they were a great name brand. So eBay didn't even have buy it now.

And I sold them. There was a black and a white purse, and I sold

them two at a time every week. And I was selling those dollar 50 purses

for $60 or $70 apiece and shipping them all over the country.

So that was the ebay beginnings. And I'm like, wow, I could actually

do something with this. And that was like, from like a $50 shopping

cart full of purses, I could do this.

Wow, that is a heck of a flip, first

of all. But also just having the

awareness to jump into this type of

business where you're taking stuff that is super low.

Know, I follow you. So, you know, you shop at the thrift stores

and estate sales and things like that, and then you flip it on

eBay. And honestly, I'm surprised every

time I hear about one of your hauls and things, like. Like,

I know you did something similar with bras. I did do bras. I

did those later on, and I did a truckload of bras, and they were up

in Ohio. I had my whole family helping me. My grandma was sitting there with

a butter knife, peeling clearance stickers off these bras with, like, I

had black Sharpie all over my fingers. So, yeah,

I will do whatever. And I've stuck with. I worked at the

gap at the time, so I knew that the women were the people that were

coming in and shopping. So I've stuck with what I know, because even now

when I sell stuff, I do sell men's stuff. However,

it doesn't sell, like, the women's stuff. So I lean in on the small,

easy to ship items, bras, purses,

makeup. And that has been my bread and

butter, because those are the people that are shopping, and

people are very brand loyal and scent loyal. So

if you get a discontinued scent, that's another one that I've done really well with

over the years. People want that scent if it's a popular one, like,

I've gotten some duds and I'll put it into a mystery box and sell it

off if I can't sell it that way. But, yeah, I've

stuck with small, easy to ship items. I've never gone into the

expensive items or the heavy items.

That's a good point, because I feel like some people think, oh, if I

sell on eBay, I have to get stuff that's high dollar and

then use that. Maybe my markup is not that great, but that's

what people want. Because you're talking about dollar purses and you're

marking them up tremendously. $60. That was when they were bidding.

They were bidding them up to $60. Yeah, I had my little reserve. I think

I was trying to get $30 for them, but they always went 60. $70.

That's wild. The bras were not that great of a market. They were like,

around a dollar to $2. And then I ended up selling them for nine.

And people are like, why would you have all this hassle? Well, when you have

a truckload and you're paying two and you're selling them for nine, that

adds up real quick. And that really propelled me with real estate.

I remember when that went through, and I'm like, all right, I'm putting a down

payment on this one with this. This is bra money right here.

And I think that's a fun story, too. When

I sold that one, and I did sell that one, I'm like, do you know

how many bras I had to peel off stickers to buy this place? And

that's what it was. They were clearance bras from one store that

a discount store got. They left all the clearance stickers all over them. I

can't turn around and sell them for $9 if they have a one or a

$2 sticker on them. So that was the most time consuming, which took over

a week to just peel stickers off bras. But you got a house out of

it. I sure did. And I got a fun story about a

truckload of bras, and

it got me to where I wanted to be. I knew working at a movie

theater, I started at 32,000. Right when I left in

late 2021, I was at 78,000. And that was a span of 15

years. That salary paid my bills. It was

nights and weekends. But that salary was not going to help

me buy real estate, and that salary was not enough to grow

to where I wasn't going to have to rely on that movie theater job for

the rest of my life. So eBay was my answer. That was like,

I'm going to do this and I'm going to sell enough. And I would do

that starting in 2009. I went to the

bank for a loan, and they're like, oh, my gosh, you have debt. We're not

going to give you anything. So I went and I got a

job at Ross working part time, and I would make my

little 200, $300 a week, and I would drive across the street to Citibank, and

I'd hand them the whole check, and it took me a year to pay off

my 17,000. And then once I did that, I'm like, okay, if I could

do that in six months or eight months, however long it took me to make

that money, I'm like, I can do this once a year, and I can use

that 12,000, 15,000 as down payments on these houses.

So I bought the first one in 2009, and I just made it

a goal to do one a year because I didn't want to

leave the movie theater and go to another movie theater. I wanted to build something

myself, and that was my way of doing it. So with that

being said, what made you decide that you wanted

to even have real estate? Like, how did you make that goal

where you said, you know what I want real estate. Where did that come from?

It actually goes back to college again. And it was. I

wanted to buy a house because my rent was $375, and it was going up

to $400. And I'm like, I can't pay this crazy number. And I know that

this is, like, toledo, Ohio, 2003. But I

went, and they're like, you make $8 an hour, we can approve you for

nothing. And then my grandma and the mortgage broker on the same

day are like, buy a duplex. They're like, if you do this duplex, we can

use the rent to qualify you for, like, $100,000

house. And I'm like, $100,000 right now. I'm qualified for,

like, $26,000. Let's do it. I'll live next to someone, so I have

my own place. So I was house hacking without calling it house

hacking. My grandma was also like, buy yourself a duplex. Let

them help with the mortgage. So at 21, I bought a duplex. I

cashed in my gap stock, so I wasn't handed money. I had been purchasing gap

stock. It was part of the employee program that they had at the time,

and I cashed it all in, and I used that as my down

payment. I put $9,000 down. I had $10,000

in stock because I started when I was 16, and

it wasn't a home run because I was a terrible landlord at the beginning.

I was fighting with my tenant over things that I look back on now, and

I'm like, why was I even picking this fight? That just makes no

sense. But I think being 21, you need to make those

mistakes. I recently just shared about. After I moved out, I had a

storage locker down in the basement, and one of the tenants there decided to just

break in and steal my stuff. And I certainly didn't follow

any rules. I had a friend help me break back into my own house, and

I stole all my stuff right back out of his house while he

was at the club. So I was a terrible landlord at the

beginning. But seeing that early on

and seeing like, hey, this person downstairs is going to pay me $600, and my

mortgage is $738 with tax and insurance. Yeah,

I'd love living for $138. And, yes, it's not truly

$138. I had to fix broken furnaces

and do lawn care and all that. But that

was the start, and I still own that 120 years later. I'm 41 now,

and that property that I bought when I was 21 is one of my favorites

in my portfolio because it's a cash cow at this point. Everything's been

fixed by me over the last 20 years. So it's got the new windows and

the new roof and the new plumbing and all that. And I

saw that there, and I'm like, I can replicate this. How

can I do it in Dallas? Because when I got to Dallas, they're like, rent,

$675 here. And I'm like, oh, my. I was paying 400 and freaking out

in Toledo. And I got down here and they're like, 675. And

I'm like, I need to figure this out quick down here. So I did.

Yes. And as you're talking, because I'm learning more

about your story, and I'm like, there are so many similarities

there between you and I, and one of

those is being declined for something,

them saying, you don't make enough, you have debt, whatever

the case may be. And that really started my trajectory as well. So

sometimes it's those setbacks that really

propel you forward. And then I also wanted to hit on using

those employee benefits. You all, I always tell people,

use your benefits. I love employee benefits.

And that's one that a lot of people overlook, is the

employee stock options. And you use that to build up a

little nest egg. And then when you left, you said, I'm cashing out. And

I for sure did. And I used it for my tuition reimbursement, which is

another one that people sleep on a lot if that's offered. Like, I

got three classes reimbursed every semester as long as I got my b

minus or better. There was one time I got a c plus, and I was

devastated because I had to bite the bullet, and I actually took the class

over again, but I had to pay for it that semester. And

I'm like, man, you need to just work a little bit harder to get that

b minus. So I think those things,

because those are available still at a lot of places. Like, if you take

business classes, you can get tuition reimbursement. There's stock purchase plans

where you can get it at a discounted rate for the time that you were

working. I think that those are things that can really propel

people and move them ahead. And they weren't moving my

needle quite enough. And that's where eBay kind of like, okay,

if I combined all of these, that's superpower,

where you can make it work and you can buy a property every year,

or you can move the needle enough. So

I'm not paying. I'm floored at what rents have become now. And

it's like $2,000 for a large one bedroom. And I'm

like, I'm glad I bought when I bought, because

it's tough trying to navigate and figure out

how do I make all of this work on this salary? And

it's tough. And that's why getting creative is a big part

of what I do, is if you don't want to

do eBay, you can do rover and do dog walking. There's so many different.

I have a friend that does cookies, and it's crazy when I see his cookie

order sheet. And yes, he spends a lot of weekends just hand decorating these

cookies. But one, he likes it. Two, he's really good

at it. And three, that's the money that pushes him over

to where he can take those nice vacations when he wants to,

and he can stop taking cookie orders when he wants to.

And I love that. I think that's the key.

It's not like you need to side hustle for life, but it's using that side

hustle to kind of propel. And there's been times where I've done less

eBay, but even now in financial independence, with

24 doors, when I have a really expensive month and everything breaks,

it's great when I can ramp up my eBay sales. I'm not a quick buy

and hold. Right? When we were starting up, I was telling you about how all

the advent calendars are selling right now. I bought those a year ago, and

I knew that when I talked to people, I'm like, guys. I started with less

than $100 on eBay, and I was able to turn it into

$500. And then instead of putting myself in debt and

buying expensive iPads and nikes, I focused on the small,

inexpensive items that have great markups, because people like this color of

lipstick or they like this shade of foundation. So I think

getting creative and thinking outside the box kind of pushes

you over and keeps you moving forward, because we

can get stuck easily. Absolutely. And

during the time when I bought my house, too, I was making,

what, $15 an hour? And

I was doing Uber and Lyft. That was my side hustle, and I absolutely loved

it. Did double duty for me because I was able to meet people, talk

to them about my business, and get more awareness that way

while I was still getting money on the side to help subsidize my

w two income. And that's what really helped me. Now,

I did have to do a little convincing with the mortgage lender because they were

like, well, this is not consistent income

but I was like, look, I've been doing it for like, two years now. It's

pretty consistent. And so anyway, using that as

a catalyst to step into real estate as well,

I feel like that was instrumental for me. And it

sounds like for you now. I want to get into. You

mentioned that you bought a duplex, and we've talked about house hacking on here

before, but how did you transition

from that one duplex to now 24 doors?

What did that process look like? It was by

2009 or 2010, what I was doing was I was buying

one, moving into it for a year or two, and then turning it into a

rental, because then I could get a lower mortgage rate

or a lower down payment. And by

2010, I knew that I didn't want to go to another

movie theater. I just wanted to build something myself.

And it was one a year. And there were years where I would sell enough

on eBay to get that down payment, get it in the bank, and get it

in the bank long enough that the underwriter is not like, why do you have

this random deposit of $3,000? So I let it sit in

there for a little bit, and I just knew I wanted

to build my own thing. And I knew what I was doing with that duplex

at 21, I could replicate. So I did want a

year. And at the time, I kept trying to buy houses in Dallas, and this

is the low time, and prices were super cheap. I just didn't have a lot

of money. So I focused on condos because they were the

lowest point of entry and the other investors were ignoring them at the time. And

I was buying like $18,000 condos,

$20,000 condos, because I didn't

have competition. And that was kind of my foot in the door.

And then there were times, as I went on, there was one time in

2013 where I put out an offer on three properties in one day. And

when I was bidding on stuff, I'm like, I'm sure I'll get out bid or

they won't respond. And all three came back accepted.

And I'm like, well, I'm going to try and figure this out. And I bought

three that year in 2013, and it took every penny of that

emergency fund. And then when I had to go start and try and fix them,

I was like, man, I was selling tile. I was selling whatever I could find

at that time to try and get my properties fixed up. But

that was what it took. And you know what? I really

wanted? A new car. I had never had one. And in 2010, I was like,

I'm going to buy this car. I'm going to buy this car. I'm going to

buy this car. And I bought a condo for 14

five, or I could have bought this car for 14 five, and I decided, I'm

going to put new tires on the car, and I'm going to buy this

condo for 14 five because it'll pay for the car in the next two or

three years. So when I did have that car payment, which I bought my first

new car in 2013, I had that condo money coming

in from that 14 five in 2010. And it

really did. It paid for my first new car. So I think you

have to look at it that way. A lot of us want to go run

and get new cars or new shoes or new this. What can I do

to get it without paying for it? And we were even talking about this when

we were warming up. There's a lot of times where I'll wait for the stores

to do the certain sales and they'll bundle and give you a bunch of free

items when you buy this item. So buy the item that I want,

and then I sell off all the free samples and the free items that they

give me. And that usually pays for my item that I'm buying in the first

place. So I think being creative is important, and

a lot of people are like, nah, I just want the Chanel. It takes work.

You know that because you've done it. You did Uber, you did lyft.

Yeah. It takes me time to put it in an envelope, go down to the

post office and mail it. But it's now paid for my free

cologne that I'm wearing for the next year. Right? And funny

story, since we bought up before we hit record,

he was like, oh, I just made some money. I just sold one of the

colognes from the freebies. I did. I sold a

dior for $25, and that was a free bottle of cologne. So

after shipping and everything, my profit is probably 15, $16

on it. I'm good with that because I know I bought two

colognes with it, and that's going to pay down or take off of what I

paid on those two colognes. And they gave you a lot of free,

like, I call Black Friday. The samples that you get from the

different stores or the freebies are like the super bowl of freebies. Like, you

wait all year for these bundles, and I go to all the big stores like

Saks and Ulta and all these different department. Neiman

Marcus is another one. They have a lot of really good freebies. And

people will say Black Friday is a scam. Yes. But if you know how

to work it, you can get a lot of great stuff. So it

depends on how you work it. Are you buying junk that you don't need, or

are you buying stuff that you can potentially make money from? And that's one of

my favorites on Black Friday, is all the freebies I get

when I buy certain things, because it can literally carry me through the year just

buying a couple items. Black Friday

and those freebies, they

add up over time. You're making $16 on one, and you get a bag

of 17 of them from one purchase. It adds

up. And see, nobody talks about that side of Black Friday. I never even

heard of that side of Black Friday. So thank you for sharing that,

Jim. You got to know where to go. And then when you pair it with

the cash back sites, oh, man, it's like they're paying me to take

this. Sometimes now, you have to have patience. It's not like today

I'm paying off that cologne, but there's

$16 off of it right now. Then there's some cash back that comes through, then

more items sell. So I think even with real

estate, for me, it's a buy and hold, long term

game. I don't like doing the flipping. I've done it a

few times over the years. And one of the last times I flipped, I

made $29,000. And I remember sitting there at the closing table, and I'm signing the

paperwork and I'm like, man, this guy's going to make $11,000 a

year for as long as he owns it. And I did all the hard work.

I ripped out all the plumbing. I did this. It's pretty right now,

right? And I'm like, why am I doing all this work for $29,000? So

I'm a buy and hold investor. And for eBay and resale, I have a

tiny presence on Amazon. It's not going to be tomorrow that

this item is going to sell. But hey, right now, I just sold one item.

I'll ship it out tomorrow, and that's $16 in profit for me for the

next thing that I can funnel into savings that I can funnel into

whatever my next project is. Absolutely.

Well, I will tell you, have inspired me tonight, because I'm just

like, I want to go start selling stuff now. But with

that being said, tom, you've given us so many gems, and we don't

want to give it all away for the people. But if people were interested in

finding out more about you, following your journey, getting more tips and

tricks. How could they find you? So I'm most active on

Twitter or X and that's where we found each other. But

my va dm me today and she's like, do I still work for you? And

I'm like, yes. So she's going to start editing my videos

over TikTok and Instagram. My name is the same on all

three. It's at the frugal gay eleven. And it's

because the frugal gay was already taken, not because

there's ten others. So I'm most active there. Also have

coaching up on my website on the frugal gay. So you are welcome to

dm me on any of the three. I'm just slow to respond on certain days,

but I will respond yes, because. You'Re cashing in on eBay now.

Yeah, I'm packing up the sales. Right.

No worries. I will make sure that I have all of your links in the

show notes. So if you didn't catch that, definitely go check those out. Thank

you so much, Tom. This was such a joy and I'm so glad that

I got to learn more about you, your story, and just

put more behind the person I know on X. Thank you for

having me. I love having conversations with you every time I run into you. It's

a treat. So thank oh, thank you. Bye

bye. Thank you for listening, joining and

being a part of the Money Talk with TIFF podcast this week. You can check

Tiff out every Thursday for a new money talk podcast, but if you

just can't wait until next week, you can listen to previous podcast

episodes@moneytalkwitht.com

or follow TIff on all social media platforms at

moneytalkwith. Until next time, spend wise

by spending less than you make a word to the money wise is

always sufficient.