'The wolf of buy and sell' talks Hot Wheels, Archie comics and hockey cards
Edmonton man creates lucrative niche in online marketplace for pop culture keepsakes
Dima Perelman comes down the long hallway pulling a cart loaded with containers full of Beanie Babies.
This is how he makes his living now, buying and selling pop-culture artifacts online.
With so many Albertans active on websites such as Kijiji or Facebook Marketplace, Perelman said his recent success using creative ads has become a lucrative business.
He rents space from a local mortgage broker company. The desk in his small office is like an island surrounded by stacks of hundreds of Archie comics and boxes filled with hockey cards.
All are items he bought online in bulk, on Kijiji or Facebook or Ebay, items he then resells individually or in small lots on those same websites.
Given his success since he started two months ago, he jokingly refers to himself as "the wolf of buy and sell," a play on the 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street.
Perelman said he recently sold 600 Hot Wheels cars, close to 400 Archie comics and binders full of hockey cards. As for the Beanie Babies? Well, he admits they might not be the hot seller he had hoped. He expects to donate some to gift drives.
Perelman is learning as he goes in his new business venture. So far, hockey cards, including the Tim Hortons collection, seem to earn him the most money.
The 32-year-old spent years booking concerts at nightclubs in Edmonton, and working on music tours across the country. Eighteen months ago, he pursued his dream of tour managing and promoting. But that didn't work out as planned.
"It turned out to be more of a nightmare than a dream," he said. "And during that journey is when I was expecting a child. Bad timing on my part."
In an effort to find something more stable so he could spend time with his five-month-old son, Perelman used his marketing background and his sense of humour to create weird, creative buy-and-sell ads for pop culture items.
A report released by Kijiji in February suggested Albertans are very active in the second-hand economy. Across the country, pop culture merchandise was the second most popular category among buyers and sellers, behind clothing and shoes.
For Perelman, it all started with a Monopoly board game he bought for $10 and sold for $20. He followed that with an ad for stuffed Mickey Mouse figures, which featured pictures of himself at a board meeting with the stuffed animals.
While some may question his focus on buying and selling used goods, Perelman said it works for him. In his most successful week, he said, he made close to $2,000.
"Some people are like, 'Yo, have you hit rock bottom?' " he said.
"There's usually folks who buy a lot of items. It just boils down to having something they want and having a good price."
Perelman still plans to book events and shows when it suits his family schedule. But he envisions turning his retail venture into a brokerage for people who want to sell things but don't want to deal directly with buyers.
"I love the people I meet," he said. "It's relatively stress free. It's fun to have chats with collectors and CBC News about the weird business I got into.
"So, yeah, it's been a pretty fun ride."
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