The Latest News - Episode 101

https://linktr.ee/KarriKennedy

I’m covering a lot today, guys — my first time hearing a Whatnot ad on the Ed Mylett Show, the new Points and Jumbotron rewards system that just rolled out, and why I think it’s built to get you spending more, not having more fun. I also break down the gambling lawsuit tied to card breaks and repacks, and share why I think Whatnot needs to slow down and fix their foundation before they keep growing

#KarriKennedy #edmylett #WhatnotSeller #WhyNotWhatnot #WhatnotTips #LiveSelling #WhatnotCommunity #WhatnotRewards #WhatnotLawsuit #SellerTips #ShopSmart #WhatnotApp

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Hey there guys. I hope everybody is doing well. It is a rainy day here on uh July 14th, I think it is. Yeah, 2026. And uh I am drinking my Echinacea blueberry hot tea while I come to you with a bunch of different topics. I think there's like four or five different topics we're gonna cover here today. Who knows what I'm gonna name this? But the first thing I want to tell you before I hit my notes is there is a show, uh it's a YouTube show, channel show, whatever, and a podcast. Obviously, I listen to it on podcast form, but it's called the Ed Milette Show. E D Ed and My Let M-Y-L-E-T-T. And I love this guy. I've been listening to him for years, think very highly of him, totally suggest the podcast. But the reason I'm mentioning it today is because for the first time ever, I heard a whatnot commercial ad. Now it wasn't a pre-recorded one, it's where Ed gets, you know, a kickback for advertising it. So Ed says something I don't remember the details, but basically, like, hey, there's this app, it's called Whatnot. There's um, you know, tons of millionaires over there. I don't know what he said exactly, but he did mention that there's millionaires over there. Um, and he said, So if you're if you're interested in, you know, selling your stuff or buying or whatever, go check out the Whatnot show. I mean, app. And I thought, oh my gosh, this is the first time I've ever heard them advertising, which personally I don't think they should be doing. I know all they ever think about is money, money, money, and how can they grow, grow, grow? And I think that's wonderful and great. But as we'll discuss in this episode, Whatnot is making a lot of choices that as a person who has actually been in business and consults for people doing business, I don't think that they're really thinking it through. I think that they are going too hard, too fast, and the foundation isn't strong enough to make things go well. I think they need to slow down instead of continuing to advertise. That's my take. You guys don't have to agree with a lick of what I say, but I'm gonna put it out here uh because that's the way I roll. Um, so that's that's the first thing. Um, so I don't know if you guys have had any experience with any other commercials anywhere else besides the Ed Milette show. My guess is if it's there, it's lots of places, which quite honestly, as a seller, kind of scares me because when you go onto this platform, you're not just bringing in buyers, you're bringing in sellers. And it is very saturated and it is very hard. And while they might say, ooh, millionaires made here, the majority of people are not millionaires. The majority of people are doing this as a side hustle. You know, they might make 500 bucks a month or they might make 3,000 a month, but they're they're nowhere near million-dollar status. I'm thrilled for those people. That's great. If I could make a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand a year doing this, I would do it all day, every day. Personally, for me right now, with my lifestyle, divorce, kids, you know, everything I got going on, that's not an option for me. And I think it also depends what category you're in, and also um, you know, what you is available to you. Um, you know, are you getting stuff wholesale? Is your family in a certain business? You have access to this or that. You know, there's a lot more to it than just come over to whatnot and make a million dollars. So um, yeah, reality check. Um, okay, but that's the first thing. I don't think it's a good thing, but there we go. Okay, the next thing we're gonna talk about is what was rolled out the other day that I saw. Um, and it's a rewards system. And their stated reason on whatnot is to get more buy uh to get buyers more interactive and to make live shows more fun. Uh, but seriously, guys, once you see how this actually works, it's it's built to get people buying more often, and every extra purchase means more money and revenue for whatnot. And that's what it's all back down to. Um, you know, whatnot did more than $8 billion in sales last year. Okay. Um, it's an $11.5 billion company. That's what it's like estimated at billion with a B. So over 20 million new accounts were created in the in the app alone in 2025. We all I've I've said this in here before. We all know what happened when they bring, I think it was John Cena, and they may bring in Mr. Beast and they give away cars, you know, they do these huge, hyped up things, which, okay, great, wonderful, but they're bringing so many people so fast that they they can't keep up. And there's problems that I think they need to slow down and fix the foundational stuff and work on that before they keep adding because 20 million new accounts, that's a freaking lot. I don't even know how many accounts are over there altogether, but it's it's a lot. Um, last year it ranked at the top 15 free iPhone apps in the entire America. I don't know about the world, I don't know where it's catching on. You know, it's in Canada and um I think Australia has it and some other places. Uh, but when a company this huge builds something, there's always a reason for it. And, you know, call me a conspiracy theorist or somebody who doubts and checks and looks under the hood. But I'm this is where I'm going with this. I am always looking at it with a fine tooth comb, you know, and checking it out. Okay. So here's what it is. Okay, so the current name is called Points, but over in the UK, Australia, and Canada, when they first launched it back, I think in early June, it was called Gems. Uh, but now they changed it from gyms to points. Points just got here in America. I think it was like three, four days ago that I saw it, maybe the 10th or something. Um, I might have missed a day or something, but very recently. Um, it's still rolling out. So you might not have a clue what I'm talking about. Um, they're saying that it's beta testing. Um, I'm able to see it, but you guys aren't. I'll talk about it a little bit more. So just so you know, when they do these beta tests or when they roll out a new program or whatever, everybody doesn't get to see it. It's a limited group. So that's what's going on. Um, you know, different challenges, you know, for different people, right? Um, that's normal. Not everybody gets the same thing. Okay, so what are points? Basically, they're little emoji tokens inside the app. There's no money, there's no real points. In my mind, it's ridiculous. I did not come to whatnot to play video games. I don't need any more things popping up on the screen. It's just, yeah, let me get into it. So you earn points by completing daily challenges, things like checking in or watching, I think, five minutes of a show or making a purchase. Actually, I think they try to get you to make three purchases per show. And um, then you spend those points on two things. Okay, so this guys, I'm just telling you how the way I see it. This is so freaking dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I'm 55. If you're 18, you might love this. You might think this is the coolest thing since sliced bread. Me, I think it's dumb. I don't want it. I don't want to see it. It's just another thing. It's a shopping app. Just stick with what you are and stop trying to go everywhere else. They at whatnot want us to stay in our own lanes. If you're selling food, they want you to sell food, they want you to be consistent, they want you to sell the same stuff, they don't want you to move from, you know, oh, you're in estate sales over here today, and you're in books over here today. They don't want you to do that, but they are constantly, you know, calling the kettle kettle black, you know. Uh, they're that's what they're doing. They can't figure out, they're just like, oh, let's try this. Oh, let's try this. Let's how about you stop trying and you focus in on what you can do for the buyers and the sellers that is actually, you know, something positive that we can get excited about. This isn't it, guys. This is crazy. Okay, back to my, you know, me. All right. Anyways, so you get these like little challenges to compete, okay? And then you get reactions and jumbotrons, which talk about video games, that's all it is, guys. They're little animations. So a reaction is like a tiny animation, like a an it's like an emoji, okay? It pops up on your screen, you double tap it during the live show, and then that way when people are watching the screen, they see it. Just like when you see hit the hearts, you know, and the hearts, if you tap on the screen during a show, little hearts go up. Um, I I don't even know if that's actually really helping the algorithm. I have my doubts, guys. I feel like it's just seeing if you can just hit the screen. I think it was just, I really don't think the algorithm is watching if little hearts are going. I personally don't think so. Somebody can prove to me that that really is helping, and you can show me the evidence, then I'll believe it. But right now, I don't buy it. So um on my own screen, some of uh some of these cost nothing. One was free, but most of them ran anywhere from a hundred to five hundred points. So you really have to work at buying and watching and getting these stupid things so that you can use them in a show. So, okay, so here's an example. There's one called um heat and it's a flame and it cost 100 bucks. There's one that caught, I mean, 100 points, not bucks. Um, there's one called Take It and it looks like a handful of cash for 500 points. And there's one called the Playmaker, and it's a little soccer ball, and it's 500 points. My thing is I'm coming to shop I or sell. I am not here to play a video game. Why do I need to spend money so I can get a soccer ball so I can put it in somebody's room? I just I don't get it. I just think it's so dumb, y'all. I'm sorry. Okay, I'm gonna talk about the Jumbotron. Uh, it's a bigger, like size-wise, bigger animation. It shows up on the screen um only when you make the purchase. And now these cost a lot more. Why? Because what wants more money? I really feel like there's a point where companies are so money hungry that they they go to these extensive uh just ways to get people to blow their money. Honestly, guys, I think everybody should not participate, not buy these, not do this, because we should get rid of it. I just I think it's stupid. Um, on on my screen, when I watched this, the Jumbotron or whatever, it says around a thousand points, and it went all the way up to 50,000 points, which is the top tier. Uh, a few examples are there was one that was it called the cheer pop, and you got a thousand, that was a thousand points. Another one that was a thousand points was the heart halo, and then there was one that was a gold crown called a coronet for 5,000 points. And the biggest one was something called the torch bearer, and that one alone cost 50,000 points. Now, I'm not sure how many things you would have to do, like how many hours you would have to watch, or how much money you would have to spend to get 50,000 points. But I'm like, what's the point of it? Oh, yay! You get to go to somebody's show and drop an emoji, basically. A little, well, they're calling it, you know, a jumbo draw an animation, but who cares? Like, you know, I I don't know. Anyways, where is this found? There are two ways you can find it. So from your home screen, you tip tap on your gift box icon up in the right corner, and that uh that's gonna, or down at the bottom middle, and it's gonna reward do your rewards hub. Um, you got three different challenges referrals, uh, challenges, and points shop. And you can also get to it from the live show itself, like when you're in somebody's show and it pops up. It can pop up while you're watching, and it has a button that says view shop. Okay, so let me have a sip of this. Hold on. Oh my gosh. You know, teabags getting all mixed up with the spoon. Hold on. Okay, so there um this is what it is. There's a challenge called Shop to Earn. The first purchase of the day gets you a thousand points, the second purchase gets you twelve hundred points, the third one gets you two thousand points. So if you if I buy three three items from some show, I could get four thousand two hundred points. But once again, guys, this is dumb. Who cares? I I just I just want to like scream at whatnot right now and go, why are you doing this? What is the point? Anyways, it resets every single day at six o'clock in the morning, so it does not roll over. You don't get to stack it. So you'd really have to go in and buy something with some serious cash. I don't even know, like high dollar watch, some gold, a giant fancy fur coat or a fancy purse, something high, high dollar to get you one of those 50,000, whatever. And to me, okay, um, from a Christian standpoint, it just reminds me of the Pharisees, right? Like they're all, oh, let me put my money in the thing so you guys can see how awesome I am. You know, I why does anybody need to do this? It's like, let me show you how much money I spent. And if people who are already sucked into the addictive thing, which we're gonna talk about that in a minute here, if they're already having addiction issues and they're just using a credit card and they're not thinking and they're racking up money, this is just not another thing for people to blow money on. This is you're not getting anything. And I mean, maybe, maybe somebody's like, oh, I'm in Susie's um, you know, shop and I'll buy three things so I can get the points. So I can go to Kimberly's show and drop it there. I don't know anybody who's gonna do that. I've never talked to anybody about this, but that just seems absurd to me. I'm just saying. Um, and the points don't um expire once you earn them, but bonus tiers do set re every day, right? Every day at 6 a.m. Um, okay, so what are you getting back for buying that? Well, nothing. You're getting nothing. You're not getting a percentage off, you're not getting a discount, you're not getting free shipping, there's no coupon, you're freaking getting an emoji, guys. This is have I said this is dumb yet? Oh my gosh. Okay, now does that emoji actually do anything for you? Will you get anything if you throw that emoji up? Um, maybe a tiny teeny bit. And here's how because when your name pops up on with a jumbotron, it's gonna say, you know, Carrie, you know, is saying hello with her soccer ball or whatever. People in the show will notice you. So maybe you get a little recognition, maybe you get a follower or two, but they're not even in your show buying anything. So, I mean, there's a visibility benefit there, but I don't think it's worth it, guy. I mean, I don't think it's worth your time and energy. If you want to play a video game, go play a video game. If you want to shop, come to whatnot, you know? Um, anyways, uh getting noticed for a few seconds in a live stream is not worth chasing a 50,000 point reward. I just don't think so. Um, the other one is shop to earn isn't the only challenge. There's also the daily check-in. That one's free. You just open it to claim your points. No purchase needed, but who cares? Then then it's like a the shape of a yellow W, the whatnot thing, and you can drop that in somebody's show, but it looks so much like the hearts that are going up. When I was in somebody's show and somebody did do one of those yellow W's, nobody really is paying attention. It just got thrown up there. Nobody knows who did it. What's the point? I don't get it. Um, anyways, uh, whatnot gives you a few free ways to pick up small amounts of points, but the big money 1000, 1200, 200 points jumps, and that only comes from buying. So they really want you to buy so you can get points, so you can get an emoji. Oh, good gracious. Okay, so how is this done? You complete the daily challenge, the point lands in your account within like a couple seconds, probably. Um, and then you spend the points, and then once you buy the reaction or the jumbotron, it's immediately, well, automatically, I guess, um, applied going forward. So every purchase in that shop is final. No refunds, no exceptions, straight from whatnot's rules. That's what it is. So if you buy a soccer ball, for example, you can't switch it out to get a flame or something. So I mean, you're buying an emoji, guys. This is this is like pet rocks in the 70s, except those were cooler and something tangible that you could hold on to. Okay. Whatnot legal terms for their program says their contract says these points are not your property, they are not money, and they can never be converted to cash. Good job, lawyers. Good job. So you spend real dollars to earn tokens worth zero dollars anywhere inside the app. The reward is an animation, guys, nothing else. And I want to make um something clear here, too, because I think some of you assume that somehow this is going to affect sellers, and really directly it doesn't. I mean, sellers have no control over, you know, getting somebody to buy the points. Like we don't get to say, oh, you get a point and whatever. They they don't set it up. There's no extra payout, there's no fee break tied to it. It's not anywhere in whatnot's rules. As a seller, you have nothing to do with this. This is between the buyer and whatnot. And whatnot already has an actual rewards program that the seller gets to set up. Now that I think is cool. I will I will high-five Whatnot on that because that way you can give either a percentage or a dollar amount when somebody works their way up to spending a certain amount. Um, I have a rewards program right now. I've talked about this before. Um, the stats on the rewards program are good, but whatnot, this is not the same thing. The reason coupons and rewards clubs work is because somebody actually gets something for it. They get a discount, they get a coupon, they get money off, you know, or they might work up to a gift card or whatever. But the sellers and the buyers work together with that. When whatnot gets in the way between the seller and it's just, you know, whatnot, hey, give us more money. So buyers, you can buy more stuff. That's not cool. That's where they're messing up. Um, anyways, if you are ever wondering about the rewards club, the little icon on this is so teeny tiny. I really wish they would make it bigger, but it's up by the crown while you're inside a seller's show and it gives you real things, guys. This is what you want to look at when you go into people's shows to see if they have the reward club. Things like coupons and maybe private shows and actual discounts, percentages, dollars. You get the point. Um, but this new point system with these emojis and jumbotrons and all, it's just to get you interactive and acting like a video game. I mean, at the end of the day, this is stupid. Um, honestly, I don't think enough people are gonna care about little animations. It's not doing anything for them. So I'm I'm hoping that this is just not gonna work. I'm hoping it goes away quick quickly. And also, and I've said this before, like the little flash sales, I'm not a fan of those either. It reminds me of the K my Kmart like blue light specials or whatever, red light specials. I I don't like it. It looks cheap, it looks tacky, it looks unnecessary, it's not needed. There I go. That's all I've got to say about that. It's dumb in a nutshell. It's dumb. Okay. The next thing I'm going to talk about. Let me have another sip here. Is whatnot has a lawsuit. You guys can go see it. I'm just going to talk about it quickly because it's really only affecting about 4% of the app. Um, it's this attorney Paul Lesco, L-E-S-K-O. He's representing 30 clients across 15 different claims. Um, arbitration is the legal process, you know, like a lawsuit, but it happens in front of a regular judge instead of a whole courtroom. Okay. So arbitration is uh court, I guess, is what it would be considered. So the claim is targeting uh the feature of breaks and uh repackaging. Um, and here's here's what it is. Uh basically training cards uh and Pokemon cards is how whatnot got started. I've talked about the history in a previous episode. You guys can go back and listen to some of those. But instead of selling the whole thing to one person, they sell individual spots. Okay. So, like let's say it's football, okay? They tie it to a team or a player to a bunch of different buyers. And then on the camera, they open up the break. Like, so there's a bunch of cards in one package, then they open it up on the screen, and uh whichever cards match your spot, you get those, okay? But a repack works differently. That's when the seller puts together their own little mix of cards instead of it being factory sealed, and that's where a lot of the problem comes because you you can't trust some of these guys. I mean, let's just be honest. In in both cases, you're paying money up front without knowing what's inside. It's kind of like um, what were they, the surprise uh packages that we used to have that they got rid of, which were cool. I liked that. But, anyways, it was too much like gambling. And really, at the end of the day, that that's what this is all coming down to. Um but it they're selling random spots, is how that's working, okay? Um okay, so how do I explain this? So I've got notes. There's a California penal code 319, which bans paying money for a random chance at a prize outside a licensing, a licensed gambling operation. So whatnot constantly is on the line, you know, because of the government. And I've I've already said I don't think I feel like this is government overreach. I think that all these laws, I think it's stupid. I just I think that less government is the where I'm at in life. I have talked about this in previous episodes. But basically, this lawsuit came about in March. And this also whatnot changed the rules about how disputes get handled. Just pointing that out. Normally, when a company requires arbitration instead of a regular lawsuit, that company is going to cover the cost of the arbitration. So they whatnot basically said, Hey, guess what? We'll we'll pay for the court cost if we don't have to go with a bunch of people in, you know, in the court and just do the judge. So whatnot changed it so users now have to pay part of that cost themselves, and arbitrage can run into the thousands of dollars. So if anything like this happens in the fine print somewhere, I didn't go and pull it all up. It's saying that if we take them to court, we're going to have to pay for it because they don't want to be stuck with this situation again. And so there, the reason they did that is because it's going to make a regular person who's not a millionaire on here, it's going to be a lot harder for that person to come up with the money to go get the lawyer, to bring a complaint against them and everything. Okay. Um, there was a short window in here somewhere, and I missed it. I don't know where it was, but you could opt out of this, but it's already closed. That window to opt out of this is done. So everybody who did not opt out of this fine print, which totally sucks, all this legal ease. Hold on. Um, but it is what it is. Okay, it was filed in California, but it's gonna affect the whole platform. And here's why all this matters, okay? Beyond breaks, beyond repackaging. And here's where I'm going. And I've had lots of episodes about this, but it's about gambling, guys. And I think this is also gonna bite whatnot in its butt. And I, whatnot's look not listening to me, they don't give a damn. I'm just another voice in the crowd, right? But when you keep trying to level up, level up, grow, grow, grow, bring people on, advertise, and you're dealing with things like lawsuits and people constantly saying that you're you've got the word gambling coming up. I'm not gonna get into everything. You go listen to other episodes. But it is a serious problem, and they need to slow their asses down, in my opinion, and take care of their stuff instead of trying to level up, level up, level up, take care of the problems you have right now. They're constantly changing. And I get that big business wants to do that, but they need to slow down and listen to buyers and sellers and do things that we actually want instead of putting a bunch of little brains in a room going, how can we make it better? How can we do this? They need to actually listen to buyers and sellers instead of just being echo chamber in some office somewhere, because I guarantee you that is happening. They might be talking to a few people up at the very top who have made the millions who are very popular and whatever, and get a little bit of information from them, but I guarantee you this isn't this isn't from that. That this is their own internal whatever, the idea of the emojis and all that. Anyways, okay, back to so The Guardian, which is um, you know, news news reporting, um, published an investigation in December of last year, specifically pointing to whatnot's gambling style features and its popularity with scalpers and people just doing, you know, some unsavory things. Whatnot's own internal report admitted their gamified format can lead to overspending, impulse buying, and financial strain for buyers, guys. Listen to that again. Just I'm gonna read it one more time. Admitted their gamified format. We already have it's already gamified because it's like you know, oh, bid up, bid up, it's a it's an auction, right? It can lead to one overspending, two impulse buying, and three, financial strain. Guys, if you are a buyer on this app, you really need to think about what you're doing, put a limit on it. Um, we could talk about that in another show, but seriously, y'all just seriously think about what you're buying. Don't get sucked into this, don't try to buy emojis. Think about yourself because whatnot is a company that does not care about you, they just want your money, okay? So do what's right for you and your family and your bank account. Don't just go and blow money, okay? Seriously. Um, what dot not whatnot did back in 2020? That happened last year. And so what they did is they added the spending limits in 2025. So the lawsuit now also argues that those don't actually protect anyone, and here's why. So, number one, you set that spending limit yourself, which I don't even know why you would do that. If you're gonna put it up too high, why would you even do it? And you can turn it off in an instant, like in the middle of the show, you can go over there and change it. So the second you want to spend, you know, boom, boom, boom, you can get it. In a real casino, that's not the way it works, right? If you ask at a casino to ban you from gambling, they have to hold you to it. You can't just quick, you know, flip a switch and you're back on because you're caught up in the excitement and you really want that purse, right? So whatnot's version puts the control into the buyer's hands, which it is freedom, but the law says that that's the problem. Now, once again, I'm for small government guys. I think this is government overreach. I think if you want to blow every bit of your money and go into debt, you should be able to do it. I don't want the government telling us what we should be doing, but that's the law, and that's the problem. Because the whole point of a spending limit, according to the government, is to protect you from yourself in that exact situation. And uh once you can cancel it with two taps, that doesn't do it. And that's why we're dealing with this court thing. I don't know who these people are who said, oh, let's let's get together and let's go sue whatnot. I don't know what happened to them. I don't know that. I'm just giving you the information that you could easily get as well. Okay. Um, but let's just talk about this because this is in my notes. I really want you guys to think about this because I truly believe since I've been on this app for like two and a half years or something, I really need to figure out when my first show was. But um I really think that there's a lot of people who have addiction problems. I know, I know that I know lots of people who literally wake up first thing in the morning, reach over, grab their phone, and then they scroll on it. And they they justify a lot of it. They say, Oh, we're supporting our friends or we're doing other things while we're watching, and you know, justifications, excuses, whatever. Um, but the reality is they're basically looking at a screen or listening to a screen like all day, every day. And a lot of people don't have spending limits, or if they do, they go in and swipe that real quick and they just blow the money. Once again, I think we should be a land of free. And I don't think they should tell us that, like one of my other things, this is a side note, you cannot buy in Dallas, there's dry areas and there's wet areas. It means alcohol consumption. So there's certain bridge in I lived by White Rock Lake, and there's this bridge. And if you cross the bridge, you can get alcohol, but if you're on the other side of the bridge, you can't at certain times. And like if I'm having a party after for somebody's birthday, for example, on a Sunday afternoon, I can't go get alcohol till after 12 o'clock on a Sunday. Why? Because of some law made back in the 40s or 50s. I just think it's stupid. What if I need to buy that alcohol and chill it in my fridge before the party at whatever time? I don't think government should have this amount of control. I will never agree to it and think that this is a good idea. But reality is I can't control others and I can't control the government, and there's nothing I can do about it. We're just stuck with it, guys. But the government is trying to help you save you from yourself, right? And in this situation, it can be bad, it can be bad, but I'm not gonna tell you what you should do and what you shouldn't do. If you want to spend all day, every day on the app, you want to blow your money, you want to rack it up, go for it, man. I just we all have to make our own mistakes and our own choices and our own judgment. And I think that the government should get out, anyways. Um, it's a terrible habit. I think everybody who's listening to this, if you're feeling convicted, if you're feeling guilty, if you're like, oh yeah, I'm an addict, you know, I watch it in the car and I'm bidding while I'm in traffic. If you're one of those people, I really think you maybe need to check yourself, you know, regularly and go, how much time am I on this? You know, how much money am I spending? I'm actually gonna do an episode on this in the future, I think. Um, but yeah, I think we need to think about that, you know. Have you gone for a walk today, guys? Have you have you pet your animals? I don't know. Find something else to do. Okay, here's how whatnot responded back to my notes. Um, they stated that gambling is against the rules, as usual, and enforced, and that card breaks are longstanding, normal, and part of the collecting thing. Um, once again, this is four percent of all of whatnot. So while it started off mostly with these kind of cards and Pokemon and that kind of thing, it has grown so huge. There's so many different things, it is really not that anymore. It's only 4% of sellers on the platform arguing this representative um of the whole company, it's not representative, that's the word, of the whole company. So um, no but no judge has ruled on this. This is just, you know, what's going on with the lawsuit. But I do think it does say something. What not needs to get a handle on this because when they keep inviting more and more millions and millions of people, buyers, shoppers, sellers, they're gonna have to deal with more. That's just the way it works, right? I had one kid, it was pretty easy. I had two kids, pretty easy. Three kids became a little harder because you only have two hands. Then I had four, then I had five, then I had six. Let me just tell you, the more you have, the more you have to deal with. It's just the way it is. Okay, um, so, anyways, here's the connection. Here's what I'm saying. Um, whatnot rolled out points and the jumbotron three months after the gambling accusations went public. And and there's there's nothing really tying it together. But a company accused of, you know, encouraging compulsive spending through chance-based features. Three months later, that same company is launching this little program uh with cute little emojis, uh, so that you can make more purchases in a day. Well, that's not gambling by legal definition, you know, because there's no random chance involved at all. But it is what it is, right? What not dressing this up to feel like a video game and points and levels and unlockable rewards, all of it is just, I don't know. It's it's supposed to feel more fun and more interactive, but at the end of the day, guys, what they are doing is trying to work with psychology and social science to get you people to do what they want you to do, which is to give them more money by spending more money. They're trying to give you more reasons to spend, spend, spend, spend. So you have to be aware of this, guys. That jumbotron animation, it cost whatnot, you know, hardly anything to build. You know, they're little computer guys on the clock already, went in and did that, added it. But every dollar that you go spending chasing it is more money out of your pocket. Now, if you really need the thing, great. But if you're doing it to get an emoji, okay. So if you're a seller, don't lean into gimmicks and pressure tactics and and be like, buy it now, buy it now. We've talked about this. I think there's an episode called like 40 things not to do on it's way back there, maybe in the 20s or something, but what not to do on whatnot. And that's one of the things people hate on here is the high pressure sales, the high tactics, going buy it, buy it. I was in a show the other day, and the guy was such an ass. He's like, Come on, just buy it, come on. And I was like, the reason you only have three people in here is because you're demeaning, you're rude, and you're talking down to people. It was awful. I was just like, and he was getting all mad, and I was like, dude, catch a clue. It's not working. Try to be nice, you know. Anyways, guys, build trust with your buyers and sales will come, right? And if you're a buyer, take a real look at what you're spending, take a look at your time on this app. Is this something you really needed? I mean, did you really need that? Uh I'm not saying every single purchase has to be something you need, but when 99 out of 100 are wants instead of needs, I think that's kind of an issue, right? I mean, I don't know. Um, at the end of the day, this is just another one of whatnot's attempts to get money from people. And it's a cute little package. So let's um, you know, be grown adults. Tell them that we're not looking for little video games that kids play. We don't want their points and their levels and stuff unless it's actually getting us a discount or money or gift cards or something good that's tangible that I can hold on to. Um, and just tell whatnot we don't need this. Okay, so I've told you about the I Ed Milette show and the advertising, told you about how whatnot's getting too big for the britches. I've told you about the animation and jumbotron stuff, and I've told you about the lawsuit, and I've told you to watch your spending. So there's the full picture of all these different things. And if this episode helped you at all, please give me a five-star rating and uh a good review. Uh, it helps more people listen to this and find it. Also, if you guys want to call me to talk to me to get you set up to help you out, um, you can call me at 832-607-1526. My name is Carrie Kennedy. It's K-A-R-R-I, Kennedy, K-E-N-N-E-D-Y. You can find me at that name on the app. I've got a couple shows upcoming. I did a show last night, side note. Oh, by the way, if you call me, it's $20 per 30-minute consult with me. There's a girl on here, she charges $200 to watch an hour of your show. $200. I was like, are you kidding me? Insane. I will never do that to you guys because that's just highway robbery. She can't do anything that other people can't do. I really don't think so. Anyways, um, I just I don't I don't know. That just seems exorbitant to me. Um, but you can get ideas and review, and I can help you get going, and I won't charge you an arm and a leg. 40 bucks per hour. Um, but what I was gonna say is I had a show yet. Well, I've had two recently. One, I accidentally it had it on free shipping, which was interesting. It was a white porcelain show, and I did it on free shipping. So what happened, and this is frustrating, um, whatnot would not allow it to bundle. This one girl had, you know, X amount of ounces. I wish it was in pounds too. You know, I'm constantly asking my phone, how many pounds is 329 ounces? You know, just so I don't have to calculate it. Um, but so whatnot, you could do that. You could change it so we could see ounces or pounds. That would be great. Um, anyways, so I had that show and it was giving this girl Kathy one big box and then another box for like three or seven ounces or something. And I just wanted to bundle them, but because I had done free shipping, it did not allow me to do it. I and they are telling me it did. They finally got back to me after three days. It was supposed to be 24 hours, it was three or 24 to 48 hours. It was three days, they finally got back to me, and I said, You guys took too long. I ended up sending her freeze-dry skittles in that other box because I couldn't get away with it and it was gonna mess up my shipping. And they gave me $4.75, which is the cost of that shipping back. At least they said they were gonna give me a credit. So, yay, but still, I think you know, if you're gonna do free shipping, you should be able to put in what the amounts are and get that money back that they've already taken because they don't know what the size is. And so that's another frustration I have. I don't think I'm gonna do free shipping again, but anyways, and then yet last night I did a hundred books for um sixty dollars worth of gift cards. I did 20, 20, and 20, two Home Depot, and a Target gift card to different people. So I sold a hundred books at $1 starts, and I at the end of the day, I only made $78. And so I'm still trying to do this till I get out of the whatnot jail. Um, and that's going to be August 17th, two days after my birthday, which totally bites. I really wish they would have a conversation with me because basically all I did was try to give money and forget to run the giveaway. But that being said, um, guys, I appreciate you and I hope you're having a wonderful day. I hope you um enjoy the podcast and uh that you share it out with others. And uh yeah, I gotta head off to the post office. Talk to you later. Bye.