We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Andrew Temoche a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Andrew, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
I came up with my business idea when I started collecting comic books. It all started when I was 12 years old at a garage sale. My mother surprised me with a stack of comic books that looked cool. Ever since I’ve never stopped collecting. To keep up with the expenses of my new hobby, I started to sell the ones I didn’t want on eBay. Later on, my store expanded to not just comic books but to autographs, action figures, and graphic novels. Since I started my little store at a young age, I have been able to collect high-end books that I never thought I would get and meet some of my favorite celebrities.
Andrew, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Well, my name is Andrew Alfredo Temoche, but my brand name/content creator name is Ultimate Comics 04. I started to focus mainly on this business when I was 15. I saw the potential that I could make money off, so I started to research how other sellers became successful. It wasn’t easy, but I got the hang of it when I was in high school. What I do is to give my customers a fair price on all my items, including shipping. What I’m most proud of is how far I’ve gotten, and I want my customers and followers to know how thankful I am for every one of them.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I believe I started my Instagram page around 2020. At first, I didn’t care because I didn’t think anyone would want to follow me. That all changed when I took a class in business in high school. It showed that social media can be used as a tool for my company. I started to post listings I posted on eBay, and then I started to post books that I had in my personal collection. It wasn’t until 2021 that I started to grow a following and became viral. Then, last year, I was approved for my first press pass at one of the biggest comic cons, LA Comic Con 2023. And now, here I am doing this interview.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I have an excellent example for this question. During October 2023, eBay removed almost all of my listings. There was a glitch in the system that removed all of my auction listings. That was how I used to do my business. Every Sunday my listings would automatically relist, but eBay’s system had some problems and prevented me from growing my store. At first, I thought it was over for my company, but thanks to my mother and sister, I didn’t give up. I decided to make all my listings into a buy-it-now style. It took me a couple of weeks to fix over 300 listings, but I did it. Now I’m making double the amount I once did.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ebay.com/str/ultimatecomics04
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ultimatecomics04/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-temoche-65ba71283
