Making $12k in a few hours

Last weekend, strangers on the internet paid money to keep me alive.

I was selling Pokémon cards.

A few hours of livestreaming brought in almost $12,000 in sales and roughly $3,000 in profit. It also funded my latest Pokémon acquisitions.

Very responsible hobby. 😂

I started because I was bored one Sunday afternoon. Tired of the grind, curious about Whatnot, and wondering whether I could make selling cards fun.

Whatnot is a livestream auction platform. Show a card. Take bids. Sell it. Repeat.

It’s also crowded. Established sellers, loyal audiences, endless streams of the same cardboard.

Why would anyone watch mine?

Before going live, I studied other shows: thumbnails, titles, formats. I watched videos about sellers who had a huge first stream, then fell off immediately.

Getting people in once was one problem. Giving them a reason to stay and come back was another.

So I built an interface in OBS and gave myself 1,000 HP.

Every dollar a card sold below market value dealt one damage.

A $20 card selling for $5? I lost 15 HP.

The audience’s mission: take $1,000 off me and knock me out.

The twist? Bidding above market value healed me. So did sharing the show.

Things got ridiculous quickly.

Some people wanted bargains. Others appointed themselves my medical team.

Towards the end, they kept me hovering around 9 HP, overbidding whenever I got close to zero.

“Bro got $35 for a $3 card. Crazy.”

I thought I’d built a game about defeating me. They turned it into a rescue mission.

And there I was, selling cardboard while strangers became emotionally invested in my health bar.

Nobody needed another person selling Pokémon cards. The HP mechanic gave them a reason to click, stay and participate. It also gave me a clear idea to build the thumbnail, title and show around.

“Watch me sell cards” is a tough pitch. “Try to kill me by getting bargains” is a better one.

A crowded market still has room for a different experience.

Every auction moved the health bar.

A bargain could finish me. An overbid could save me. Suddenly, people cared about cards they didn’t even want.

Each sale became part of a bigger story. This creates retention and people wanting to come back. Too many people are focused on a short term outcome.

Sharing healed me, so you didn’t need to buy a card to affect the outcome.

You could show up, share the stream and help save me. Your contribution appeared on screen immediately.

That made sharing part of the fun. It gave people a reason to bring someone else in.

This is a side hobby. I’ll probably ease off now. But the process is worth practicing:

Understand a space. Notice what people respond to. Build something. Put it in front of people. Adjust.

One weekend doesn’t mean I’ve cracked Whatnot. It does remind me that making money is a skill you can practice and that trying something small can teach you a lot.

I nearly talked myself out of it because the platform already had so many sellers.

Instead, I made a health bar.

A few hours later, strangers were overpaying for Pokémon cards to keep me alive at 9 HP.

Until next time,

Ajay

P.S If you’re curious, it’s $12k sales - $40 average order value, so I had quite a few people buy stuff!