My Life as a Moto Reseller - How I funded My Way Through School

I thought It’d be fun to share my story and maybe inspire younger enthusiasts to start a side hustle to fund their moto journey.

Like anyone who started riding motorcycles at an early age, the passion consumed me. My earliest memories are of me drawing racetracks and dirt bikes on my school work and me playing by myself with my RoadChamps toy dirt bikes in the sandlot during recess. As soon as I’d get home, I’d get on my bicycle and stick a can in between the fork and tire to imitate the sound of an engine. Not much has changed since then except for my entrepreneurial mindset.

I would like to say it all started in 4th grade when I started selling Mexican candy at school. Growing up in San Diego, I had easy access to the border and loved spicy candy so I figured my classmates would too. I was right and would make a whopping 20 dollars a week selling lollipops for 50 cents each. This allowed me to buy more toy dirt bikes.

Fast-forward to middle school and I was recycling cans and bottles to buy bmx parts. I did this all throughout high school and even went as far to supplying a small shop in Mexico with bike parts that I would find on closeout via internet.

Unfortunately, all of the time I spent trying to hustle and riding my bikes ended up reflecting on my poor performance in high school. Although I was always present in school and paid attention, I never did my homework. How could I? When I wasn’t riding, I was searching the internet for bike parts. Anyway, I ended up failing many classes and my peers told me I would never amount to anything. I never cared what my peers said. Deep down I knew where I was headed.

I actually ended up not being able to walk with my graduating class because I was one math class short. This crushed my parents, all of their hard work had gone unappreciated. Although I was making money, I failed to recognize the importance of being on top of my school work. I always dreamt of pursuing higher education so I enrolled in community college and began my college career. It was a fresh start, an opportunity to redeem myself.

I had just turned 18 years old, I was studying hard with hopes of transferring to my dream university and riding as much as possible. I wanted new gear but couldn’t afford it new so I searched on Craigslist and found a set of Sidi Crossfire boots for $100 dollars. I drove over to a high end neighborhood in Del Mar and scored a set of excellent condition boots for a fraction of retail cost.

I decided I to list them on eBay for $300 and they sold overnight. I was immediately hooked. I spent hours on Craigslist each day and bought and resold thousands of dollars worth of gear. I drove all over Southern California and to my surprise, met dozens of professional athletes who were selling gear.

In 2015, I got accepted to my dream school and was staying busy with reselling gear. While in school, I met many over privileged students who aspired to be entrepreneurs but didn’t have the drive that one acquires from years of successes and failures. Anyway, I kept hustling and selling online. My main outlets were eBay, my website and VitalMx.

In 2018, I graduated with a degree in business management and had started my own shop in Alpine, CA. I sold Fasthouse, Thrill Seekers and a bunch of other action sport brands. I started with a shop the size of most walk in closets and ended up with one 10 times bigger with our own parking. It was the time of my life but I quickly discovered that there is little to no money to be made in retail. I ended up closing the doors to my shop in January 2020 but it was the best decision since shortly after, the world suffered from a pandemic.

Today, I’m involved in the exciting world of risk management and have settled down quite a bit. This story only covered a quarter of the stuff I did. The one I’m most proud of is buying a 2016 Nissan Frontier at the auction for $11,000 and selling it right back to CarMax for $17,000. And to think it started with candy and recycling bottles.

All in all, sold over $50,000 worth of used gear and never had to have a real job. That’s not including the shop. The shop actually lost money lol.

If you’ve made it this far, I encourage you to set goals and pursue your dreams. I grew up with a set of loving parents who worked hard to provide but never made it easy for my sibling and I to have the stuff we wanted. We always had to work hard. Never lose sight of your potential, study hard, school is important, whether it’s college or trade school! Above all, always dream big and don’t let people bring you down.