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  4. A 16-year-old entrepreneur reportedly brought in $1.7 million reselling video games, outdoor heaters, and above-ground swimming pools at sky-high prices during the pandemic

A 16-year-old entrepreneur reportedly brought in $1.7 million reselling video games, outdoor heaters, and above-ground swimming pools at sky-high prices during the pandemic

Mary Hanbury   

A 16-year-old entrepreneur reportedly brought in $1.7 million reselling video games, outdoor heaters, and above-ground swimming pools at sky-high prices during the pandemic
  • A New Jersey teen made $1.7 million in revenue reselling low-stock items, per The Wall Street Journal.
  • Max Hayden, 16, said he sold items such as outdoor heaters for double their retail price during the pandemic.
  • Entrepreneurial Gen Z are increasingly finding new ways to make money online.

Max Hayden, a 16-year-old New Jersey resident, reportedly pulled in $1.7 million in revenue flipping out-of-stock items online during the pandemic, including video games and outdoor heaters.

In an interview with $4, the teen entrepreneur talked through his booming online resale business, now a taxpaying limited liability company.

Hayden made $110,000 profit in 2020 buying and reselling anything from video games and consoles to outdoor heaters and $4 for about double the retail price, according to sales records and accounts viewed by The Journal.

Hayden was quick to buy items that could go out-of-stock during the pandemic and resell them to willing customers for steep prices. This included dumbbells and hair clippers, which $4 when gyms and salons closed.

Hayden reportedly devotes 40 hours a week to his online business - the rest of his time is reserved for high-school studies, he said. He's reportedly outgrown the garage in his family home and now co-rents a warehouse space nearby. He also employs two friends for $15-an-hour to help with enquiries and pack-up orders, he told The Journal.

Hayden is one of many consumers from Gen Z - defined by Pew Research as anyone born after 1997 - that are finding new ways to make money online.

Many of these young consumers, including Hayden, are reselling items on sites such as Amazon or Facebook Marketplace or $4 such as StockX, Depop, and Goat.

$4 that some of its younger users were making as much as $300,000 a year selling secondhand clothes on its app, enabling them to buy houses and cars before they've even reached college age.

Similarly, teens using resale marketplace StockX say $4 selling secondhand and limited-edition sneakers.

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