NFIB/Wisconsin Leadership Council Young Entrepreneur Foundation Profile: Andrew Pfluger, AMP Hobby
Andrew Pfluger spends every minute he can in his basement, in the corner he, essentially, built from scratch. It used to be a game room inhabited by his siblings during their childhood, but when Pfluger’s home-made business took off, it became the only logical digs for his snowballing venture: AMP Hobby.
So now where there used to be LEGO pieces lying on the carpet, there are now anywhere from 6,000 to 7,000 R/C parts for hobby-grade remote controlled cars, which he sells in his eBay shop. Screws, bearings, suspension arms, whatever any hobbyist looking to upgrade her or her remote-controlled automobile would need, Pfluger has it.
These aren’t the same cars you’d find at Walmart, nor are they the ones you’d buy for a 5-year-old and stash under a Christmas tree. These are nearly three feet long and run for about $300-400 a pop.
“These are full-on racing machines. There are people like myself racing at the local and state level, and there’s also national competition, people out there racing these cars full time,” Pfluger said. “But a majority of hobbyists are out there driving around in their backyard, having a good time with the kids. That’s really the type of customer I tailor to.”
Pfluger got started at 12 years old, when his parents gave him an R/C car for Christmas. He became hooked and slowly started accumulating car parts over the years, which the then fenced on R/C hobbyist forums to turn a profit. He soon learned that some individual parts would run for more than the retail value of a full car.
“Its kind of a paradox, really,” Pfluger said. “There’s a lot of people out there selling their old vehicles, but most people aren’t looking to buy old vehicles, they’re looking to buy the parts to upgrade or replace broken parts on their current vehicles. So I fill that market gap.”
He became so successful at first, actually, that he was banned from all forums. But now, he’s turned to eBay, armed with such a big bundle of listings that his business demands the rigors of a 40-hour workweek. At times, he can stack the number of packages he’s sending out from the floor to the ceiling.
“December of 2013 through March 2014, that was the first time I was working nearly a full-time job,” Pfluger said. “I would come home from school, put in almost eight hours and at that time I was doing $14,000 in sales per month. That is the peak of my success, the benchmark I am going to work toward.”
