Why Purchasing $120 Mystery Boxes Looking For Products To Sell Is A Risk I Won’t Take
And You Shouldn’t, Either!
My good lady wife showed me a video she watched recently where a ‘flipper’ paid around $120 for a sealed mystery box of items hoping that there would be something good to sell and make a profit.
I believe the box came from a giant retail company where they box up returned products which they cannot sell again as they have been unboxed, touched, and used, and they then sell those boxes to people.
People buy these boxes hoping to get a few ‘gems’ to sell on eBay for a profit.
No one knows what they are getting inside a box.
These mystery boxes are made up of all kinds of items which are thrown into them then taped up.
You may end up with a couple of items which you can sell and make a decent profit, or you can end up with a load of tat which won’t earn you back the cost of the box.
It really is a gamble… one which I wouldn’t take.
It reminds me of the US television show, Baggage Battles, from 2012 where people would buy sealed suitcases and luggage that had been left at airports and never collected.
After a while, left luggage is sold off to make room for more recent left luggage.
I enjoyed watching that show for its entertainment value, but I would never risk my money buying a sealed suitcase because it was a quick way to lose your money.
Occasionally buyers may find expensive items such as laptops, cameras, hairdryers, designer clothes and shoes, etc, but for the most part, they ended up with loads of clothing such as underpants, socks, and T-shirts.
In the video I was shown by my good lady wife, the guy who spent $120 ended up with nothing of any value.
He had lost money on the box.
$120 is a lot to lose.
Imagine if he had bought several more boxes at that price and they were all crammed full of stuff he couldn’t sell, that would be a nightmare scenario!
I am not one for risking money, at least not on things I don’t know what I am getting.
I like to know what I am doing with my money.
I like to know what I am spending it on.
There is always risk involved when using money to make more money. You won’t win every time.
I spent a few thousand dollars a couple of years ago having videos made for a YouTube channel in a specific niche which unfortunately did not work as well as I hoped.
You have to spend money to make money.
Leverage Is The Fasttrack To Success
There are only two things you can leverage when it comes to making money and that is your time and your money.
Money allows you to amplify your efforts by leveraging other people’s time and skills.
But, there is always a risk that it won’t work.
Sometimes, the reason something doesn’t work out the way you hoped is that you run out of money.
For all I know, if I had carried on with that specific YouTube channel it could be incredibly profitable right now, but it wasn’t earning anything at the time and money was running out.
And so we had to pull the plug on that project.
I am a lot more careful on what I spend my money on today.
Just this week I had a guy reaching out to me and offering video editing and YouTube SEO services.
I turned him down, I have been there before.
And quite frankly, with the way AI is changing the way the internet works, I’m not convinced that YouTube SEO is worth it, today.
I am working on a series of videos for a specific project, but I am doing the work which is required for that. It’s not hard and I enjoy it.
I don’t think I will be outsourcing any work to anyone else until it is making enough money to pay for the work.
How Would I Use That $120 Instead?
If I were asked to spend $120 today in an attempt to make a profit, I would probably use it on some form of traffic generation to add people to my email list.
I would possibly run Facebook ads to a landing page where people can buy a cheap $3 product and get them onto an email list where I would then promote a second $97 product.
I call this my 3-97 Funnel, you can read more about it here:
3-97 Funnel = $100 Days - Enjoy $100 Days With This 3-97 Funnel Blueprint
I believe that is what I would do.
Maybe I would run Facebook ads and send people to a free product, but the most important thing here is to get people onto an email list where I can CONTACT them again.
Now, I know that I cannot get people to open their emails if they don’t want to, and I know people can unsubscribe as soon as they sign up for a product, but when you do get someone on your email list, you have the opportunity to contact and converse with them many times.
If you send people directly to an affiliate sales page, as so many people do, they lose that person.
You need to get people onto a list where you can contact them over and over again…until they say stop.
For me, going into 2026, any money that I decide to spend will be on traffic methods where I get people either to buy a cheap product and be added to my email list, or to directly go onto my email list.
That is where I would put my $120.
Until next time.
Have a great day.
Andi
PS. If you are interested, I share more on the 3-97 Funnel in my community here Freedom Skills Academy. Come over and say hi.
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