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

CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images

• 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.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

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 The Wall Street Journal, 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 above-ground swimming pools 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 became hot 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 on resale apps such as StockX, Depop, and Goat.

Depop previously told Insider 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 they can make thousands of dollars selling secondhand and limited-edition sneakers.

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