Hey, my name is Nic Cook.
I started Popularitems.com on February 23rd, 2020. Originally, it was called Popularitemsonline.com, but after proving that there was a demand for a website that does not charge a membership fee and still gives people free 1-day shipping, I decided to invest in the upgraded domain name. But really, Popularitems.com started years ago.
When I was in elementary school, I was invited to help the neighborhood kids do a lemonade stand. My brother Zac and I quickly ran to our kitchen pantry to find supplies we could offer to the team. After a few hours of jumping up and down selling lemonade, the big kids counted up the profits and split them among us. Holding the $5 I made that day wide-eyed and in awe of the possibilities, I decided I would start a business.
Lawn mowing worked in the summer, but I needed to be making money year-round. This is where my next venture started: selling Blow Pops. I started selling them at school, the skate park, on the side of the road, and even had a stand inside a local small business. Unfortunately, this success did not last long. After hearing the worst words a kid can hear, "Nic, please come down to the principles office," The principle thought my venture was great and all, but not on the school campus. Although I had other forms of marketing and sales channels, they still did not compare to the revenue generated from the school hallways. I needed a new hustle.
When you're the guy who sells whatever is popular with the people around you, in high school you may start selling weed. Well, at least I did. The first time I tried weed, I repented and swore I would never do it again. Until the next day, I saw the dealer at school, and I told him I regretted ever trying it. He laughed, and he gave me a series of documentaries to watch. After watching how my parents and the government were wrong for 8 hours, I was sold, and I became the local weed dealer. Until the consequences started kicking in, and now I can proudly say I've been drug- and alcohol-free for many years.
After closing down the dispensary and graduating early from high school, I went all in on lawn mowing until one day I needed to rent a zero-turn mower at 1 in the morning. After aimlessly calling and trying to find someone to rent a zero-turn mower from in the middle of the night, I stumbled across an app called ToolRent. I was able to rent a brand new zero-turn mower for $60 and pick it up in the middle of the night. I stayed in contact with the owner for awhile, expressing to him that I thought his idea was amazing. Eventually, I joined the team and started renting tools and marketing Toolrent.com. This start-up consumed my life for a few years. I worked around the clock as the customer service guy, repair guy, inventory management guy, etc. It was a lot of fun and hard work; it was the first successful start-up I was part of.
It was time to set out on my own again, so I created my first LLC called Garage Sale. I went door to door and asked people if they had any items they wanted me to sell on consignment. I would take 35% of the net sales. This taught me how to sell items online. It led me to start selling name-brand items on Amazon, investing in bitcoin, making a website called Popularitemsonline.com, and partnering with a landlord to put apartments on Airbnb. I was throwing anything at the wall and trying to go all in on what would stick. At this point, I had moved from Dallas to Miami. I was working 16 hours a day and still having trouble paying my bills, so I threw in the towel and came back home.
The first day I got back from Miami, I decided to pick one business model and go with it. The website I made was starting to get more traffic and sales almost daily. So I uploaded 10,000 products onto it, and within 2.5 months, I was generating thousands a day. I had found my one thing. But I struggled to keep up with demand, so I had to shut it down for a few months and revamp it. Today, Popularitems.com guarantees you a F.U.N. experience. Which just means you get your items within 1 to 2 days, with free shipping, at great prices, and unlike Amazon, there is no membership fee. Thanks for reading, and have fun shopping with us!
Our Slogan: Popularitems.com. Free shipping. Unique items. No membership fee. The F.U.N. Way to Shop Online!