Alek & Vitaly From JDMSupply.com EP.177
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Concept
right-hand drive
Some cars have the steering wheel on the right side instead of the left. That’s called right-hand drive, and it’s common in places like Japan and the UK.
Concept
classifieds
Classifieds are like online car listings—cars are posted for sale and buyers browse them. They moved toward classifieds because it fit their audience and goals better.
Concept
cars and bids
“Cars and Bids” is a website where people buy and sell cars, usually through auctions. The hosts are saying their site grew around the same time that kind of platform was getting popular.
Concept
unicorn
“Unicorn” just means something rare that most people can’t easily find. They’re saying this Supra setup was uncommon, so it got a lot of attention.
Concept
organic hype
“Organic hype” means people got excited on their own, not because the sellers paid for advertising. The rare color made more people talk about it.
Car
Supras
They’re talking about the Toyota Supra. It’s a popular Japanese sports car, and here they’re saying one particular Supra sold really well because it was in amazing shape and had very low miles.
Concept
auction house
An auction house is where cars are sold by bidding. Here they’re saying the auction process needs enough time for people to check the cars so they feel comfortable buying.
Concept
seven days
They’re saying the process only gives about a week to check the car. They feel that’s too short to really confirm everything before buying.
Concept
JDM cars
JDM cars are cars that come from Japan. People like them because they can be special or rare, but the buying experience can be stressful if past sellers weren’t honest.
Concept
JDM stuff
JDM means “Japanese cars for Japan.” People use it to talk about Japanese car models and parts that enthusiasts import and buy.
Concept
title sponsors
A title sponsor is the company whose name is used as the main sponsor for an event. It’s a big marketing spot, usually more visible than smaller sponsorships.
Company
JDMSupply.com
JDMSupply.com is the website these guys run for JDM cars. They’re talking about ways to get more people to notice their listings and quality.
Concept
search engine traffic
“Search engine traffic” is when people land on a website after searching on Google. They’re saying they’ve been getting most of their growth that way, and now they want to expand into other ways to reach people.
Concept
JDM space
“JDM space” means the whole world of people who are into Japanese cars. The hosts are saying it’s not just cars for sale—it’s also a community that lives on social media.
Concept
Instagram is a social media app where people share photos and videos. In car communities, people use it to promote cars and parts, and sometimes to sell account names.
Concept
ROI
ROI is basically “did it pay off?” If you spend money on shout-outs, ROI tells you whether you got good results for what you paid.
Concept
jdm.com
They’re talking about getting the website address “jdm.com.” A simple domain can bring more visitors because people can type it directly from memory.
Concept
affiliate partnerships
An affiliate partnership is when a company gets paid for sending you to another service. For cars, that can be things like financing or shipping.
Concept
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace is where people post cars for sale. It’s popular because it reaches a lot of people and doesn’t cost the seller.
Concept
google search traffic
Google search traffic is when people find you by searching online. They’re saying that some JDM buyers show up through Google searches instead of social media.
Concept
lead quality
Lead quality just means how serious the people contacting you are. If someone is already looking to buy, they’re a better lead than someone just browsing.
Concept
bootstrapping
Bootstrapping means building a business without a lot of outside money. You grow it by using what you earn and working hard.
Concept
Fuji Speedway
Fuji Speedway is a well-known Japanese racing circuit used for motorsport events and driver track days. Mentioning it signals the car was driven in a real performance environment, not just around town.
Concept
JDM tourism
JDM tourism means going to Japan to see the exact car you’re thinking about buying. Instead of only trusting photos or listings, you can check it in person.
Concept
drifting
Drifting is when a driver intentionally slides the car sideways while still controlling it. It’s a popular style of racing and a big part of the JDM scene.
Concept
left-hand drive cars
Left-hand drive just means the steering wheel is on the left side of the car. That’s the layout most people in the U.S. are used to, so it can make a car easier to live with or sell.
Concept
usdm section
USDM means the car was originally sold in the U.S. They’re saying the site should organize listings so people who want U.S.-market cars don’t have to sort through right-hand drive imports.
Company
eBay
eBay is referenced as the comparison point for an online marketplace. The hosts imply that their platform would improve on the typical eBay experience for JDM parts by emphasizing trust and reducing common issues.
Concept
approval process
After you submit a listing, the site reviews it before it becomes visible. It’s basically a quick check to make sure everything looks right.
Company
youtube
They have a YouTube channel where they share videos, including clips from users. They’re planning to record more of their own trips and sourcing content.
LIVE
Hey, and welcome back to the next episode of the right-hand drive guys podcast the podcast for guys who like right-hand drives
I'm Bobby. This is Aaron. Hey, yo, and we are here today with guys with pretty interesting story
Yeah, I'm excited to hear it. This is Alec and Vitaly and they are would you guys consider yourself entrepreneurs?
Yeah
Yeah, sure. Oh, yeah, okay
Starting with Alec, can you just tell us a little tiny bit about yourself?
You know where you're from, you know what you do and then same with the tally. Yeah, I was born actually in Hawaii
Lived there for five years and then my family ended up relocating us to mainland to Phoenix
Grew up here pretty much most of my life
Surrounded by some cool guys who got me into cars, especially the JDM stuff early on
I've been kind of dabbling a lot with the whole internet marketing thing for
past 15 years and it's just kind of like what I you know found out when my profession was good
So I'm heavily into the whole internet marketing thing and that's what I do for a living
Oh, yeah, I think it's probably a good thing to be in definitely, you know
Yeah, especially compared to marketing, you know in person the internet is so broad
I can only imagine the opportunities for you. What's up with you Vitaly?
Yeah, thanks for having us man. Um, I'm originally from Estonia
Northeastern Europe and my dad was a rally racer back there
And then the wall came down and we won a green card in the lottery or they won a green card in the lottery
and we moved out to Phoenix and
I grew up around cars my whole life and
I think
Around 18 or so I got into drifting got heavily into drifting
Actually, thanks to Justin Pollack for that. Oh shit. Yeah, him and I go way back and that's a cool story to hear
Yeah, and then got into Supras met Alec around the same time to you and
Did the whole drifting car building for all the way through my 20s and I met my wife and
then kind of took a break got into tech space and marketing as well and then
We decided Alec and I decided to partner up on this project to build something tech and car related together
Oh, yeah, the crossover. So
All right. Yeah, like let's let's get to it
Like where when you guys got together, you're like, let's let's mesh tech in and cars and do everything that we like
And also hopefully make some some money, you know
Where like what was that conversation like and and where did it go from there?
this was
during the big
Just spinning says trailer
Peacock change
There's so many things with like every single day
Nothing was coming up in the JDM space and we knew that as the guys who own the G&M Instagram
I know we knew that we kind of the forefront for that space and that's how it came over JDS and why
We first started off obviously like everyone else in the auctions. We really wanted to see
We leave we learn that in order to do the options
You need to kind of have a huge audience for that something successful
And then once we learn that we decided to hit it and get into the classifieds
And then that's kind of where we've been focusing more just the classifieds on the goal
Yep, eventually to get back into the options that we still need to keep
That makes sense and so this is JDM supply. Yes, I'm supply.com. Yeah
Okay, and so where you finding
You start doing auctions, and then it's just like it's like damn these like aren't hitting
I would assume these aren't aren't
Providing the sellers with results
And and you kind of just knew like we either need to
Make this a place where you can list your car and sell it or or it's not gonna work type thing. Exactly. Yeah, we yeah
We
Obviously we had we had tried a few option rams
This is kind of see how it was as a test center thing and some were pretty good
Some had really good engagement, but others kind of just flop
And of course to keep these people happy so we ended up converting their options just classifieds and say hey
Like let's just keep it on the website and just see you know
What kind of eyeballs we can get until it sells and then from there
We're just like, you know, let's just kind of just keep pushing the classifieds
We just kind of build up the traffic and the email list and obviously the social media and the you know
The pool of buyers and then just keep pushing, you know
So what are you four years old if now like what is how old I would say yes, yeah
2021 I would say right the tally. I feel like we launched a couple months after
cars and bids
Right. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So dang crazy. Yeah. Yeah, and the first car that we did was actually Alex's
He had a quick silver Supra. Yeah, like a really nice quick silver Supra
And we got a lot of it was like the height of the Supra's prices. Yeah. Oh, yeah
And it ended up selling for I think over 200 on the platform. Yeah on your platform on our platform. Yeah, that's sick
But it was like a unicorn, right and the quick silvers were
Just what how many of them made I think
26 or something. Yeah, 26. So we got a lot of hype a lot of organic hype around it
Yeah, so was that your was that a planned sacrifice on your behalf to
Try to get some attention
Exactly. Yeah, because it's one of those Supras where it's not every day
One of these goes up for sale and the fact that mine had 17,000 original miles
Oh
It still smelled brand new inside it was very very much a unicorn car
So I knew that if I listed it up for sale, it would kind of get like a little bit like virality
It pretty much did like we posted on the super farms
We close on a bunch of super groups and of course, like, you know, everyone's like, oh crap
Like it's not every day you get to see this
So we got a ton of people registering and signing up and yeah bunch of people bidding commenting and just saying wow
Like this is so cool to kind of see like that's your first part
You know
Do you regret it?
Because I got the price that I wanted yeah, yeah, that's a
It was definitely a good time in the market for Supras to sell I mean everything was super peak
I think a few things that kind of like leveled off now
It was just definitely a really good right time right place type thing, you know
Mm-hmm. Were you gonna say something by tally?
Yeah, no, it was after we sold that car
I think reality hit like three days later is like whole shit now. We got to get more cars
Where do we get more cars?
And and that was tough that was tough and I think too in the JDM spaceman is
Like the the trust factor is lacking space for like just the whole transactional thing and agreed
Seven days is not enough to vet some of these cars as a as an auction house. Like you have seven days
Even if the listing is great
People have such a hard time trusting buyers and sellers and it was just hard
It was like an uphill battle for us to try to get people on the platform
And you want to find like nice cars. You don't want to like try to auction off clapped out
33s
So, yeah, it was a struggle and then we decided, you know, what let's we're not dug the marrow
We don't have that same reach. Yeah, let's let's pivot a little bit and do more traditional marketplace
Yeah, that makes sense. And let's focus. Let's focus on like building integrity and transparency
in the in the whole space itself
Which it, you know, and we we definitely know, you know, we have talked to so many people, right?
And it's like like you said trust in this culture industry, whatever this
very hard like because there has been so many bad deals even even
Legit companies putting out bad deals that it makes it really hard when something, you know
Maybe in somebody else's eyes pops up overnight and is all of a sudden getting you to try to to bid on this car
That seems out of this world the the most rare super like how can I even bid on that for real?
So, you know, that is hard because people spoiled it before you guys like you have to deal with the bad dealings of
Others. Yeah, and I feel like JDM cars. I don't know why but I feel like they get a bad rap
specifically just because there's been
You know, just years and years of shoddy stuff coming over and people not caring and you know
Just trying to make a quick buck on it the horror stories. We've all heard them, right? Yeah, for sure. So
Yeah, I don't yeah, that's a that's a hard road. You guys are are trying to forge, right? Just because of
the people from the past so
Dude praise to you guys for for not just quitting and saying yeah
No, it's not gonna work on to the next thing like so many people do, you know
Yeah
Definitely not in the mentality of quitting and you know, we see the growth we see you know
The user is registering every single day. We see the projections going upwards. It's just not just figuring it out
So
We we know you did auctions you pulled the auctions you're doing the marketplace
You would love to get back to auctions, but you need
You need the viewership or whatever, right? Yeah, what what's next? What are you guys gonna do to get that?
Yeah, so good question one of the things that we are looking at doing potentially this year is partnering up with some big influencers
we actually allocated some
Equity that we're looking to allocate some big influencers in the space that have huge reach like I don't know some big youtubers or whoever
and
The biggest thing for us is that they have the audience that are interested in the JDM stuff
Obviously, as you know, there's youtubers and all different types of walk slip space in the car scene especially, you know
From the exotic to the European stuff
And there are some big influencers here in the JDM space that we want to reach out to and see if they would be interested
Potentially coming on board for some equity
Okay, that makes sense pull in some some partners that have reach, you know, they have
Yeah, they can contribute in a way that maybe isn't just financially or financially at all. It's it's with their exposure
Yeah, I think that's smart, you know on on your behalf because then
They have a vested interest to say hey, okay, we're doing this event or this event series
We need to put JDM supply as one of the title sponsors
But you're not paying title sponsor money because you're partners, you know, so just little things like that that can come along
I think that that's a pretty pretty solid plan
Absolutely. Yeah, and there's obviously still a lot of stuff that we think we're still working on as far as like the organic
Reach is like
If you go on google right now and you type in like Nissan Skyline for sale
We're looking at top three. I think but obviously we want to use him
Yeah, if you focus more on getting to like the number one spot and that's just for Nissan Skyline
But for all makes him on yeah, we've been doing a pretty good job there. Um, but obviously there's still a lot more room for us to grow
Um, so and you know, you guys still have your
Regular jobs, right?
Like you're still, you know, like right just like just like us
Of course, right, you know, and so so
Do you have the opportunities because
I can imagine you're looking for exposure, right? That's the biggest thing is like people need to know who JDM supply is
That's why we're talking right now. We we need to get this out. So
Have you considered or do you have the opportunity to
attend events
Where one of the cars for sale that's on your platform that's clean is that and you know
Do that whole thing so you kind of get in person exposure and they can see the quality of the cars
I know i'm probably telling you things you've done or talked about a million times
But like is that something that could work for what you're trying to do?
Absolutely man, um
And I think the last like couple years like we our growth we've leaned so heavily on the
on the search engine traffic and
It's kind of been we've been kind of behind the scenes of it
um
But there's this opportunity now like
JDM the whole JDM space is so
It's like a social network like everybody
With JDM cars is on social platforms. It's like an extension of themselves
And I think there's an opportunity to
For us and for like Alec to use his r34 that he's gotten out to push that out to
More events be more a little front facing
um
And that's something that we plan to do
Yeah, for sure. I because I know you know, obviously we attend events and do podcasts from the events whatever and
You know, we were at gtr festival
this this past year and
I could see I could see your brand totally fitting in as something that is like kind of plugging a hole
And at least that and that's just gtr. So he's got a 34 like that's just that, you know, I mean a place where
Guys like us looking for cars like this can go to actually find them and not have to sort through
Facebook groups and marketplace and you know, then then on the other hand, we're we're typing in every
Importer, you know, okay. I'm at I'm at craft sports right now. No, okay. How about top rank?
Oh, they don't got it, you know what I'm saying
But your space is places where top rank and you know craft sports
They're even listing their cars on there because that's the place
To go find them, right? So I could totally see it for sure
And and yeah, I would love to see you guys at some events because I feel like that's when people they meet you
They're like, oh, these are just like cool dudes with nice cars, too
You know, they they were just tired of doing what I'm tired of doing, you know
And I think a lot of times that can go a long way because then the word of mouth, you know, really kicks in after that
Absolutely
Building yeah showing too much face, but it's one of the things that our goal is for this year
To get more exposure but not just
To get out there and start talking to guys start talking to more dealers
Yeah, get us get get out there more
What colors are 34 sonic silver?
Wow, nice. That's cool. I think
Isn't that like jesse and j is it that color? I think I don't think I've seen a ton of those
I think our our friend has when we because uh, we went to japan, uh with my 34 up there and you know
Drove it. We did like 13,000 kilometers
But we met other americans over there doing the same thing and that's the only real silver ones I've seen
That's cool, man. You talk. Are you referring to jesse the nascar guy?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, jesse a wuji. Yeah, sure a lot of conversations with them before I bought mine
And of course he was super helpful the whole process. Yeah, it's about definitely shout out to jesse for that big help
Yeah, he's a super. Yeah, super cool guy always been super welcoming to us
I'm wondering about the platform for sure. He definitely loves the gtr
So you're you're a silver guy then you like you like silver cars. Yeah, my super is also silver as well
Yeah, and then you had you said you had the quick so i'm like, yeah, all right, so you're uh, I am not a silver car guy at all
I'm just gonna be up front. I like silver car guys, but I'm just not one, you know
I'm a white car guy. It's just one of those things, right? Like everybody's got their things, you know
So
Okay, so we're gonna
You know, obviously continue marketing come out of the shadows and start
face
Face marketing that's legit. I think those are things that are really going to start to obviously get your name out there even more
Like okay, so you mentioned it earlier like it was no big deal
Like you kind of just threw it out there like you were talking about making toast or something
You're like, yeah, because you know we got the at JDM and you know and so it's like
Hold up, dude
That's not normal
Like most most dudes don't have like the perfect
Literal perfect right without an underscore or a period. Yeah one or yeah something weird like that so
That there's got to be a story there because I I know you had mentioned you're also at JDM on tick talk
Like those are these are two of the most major platforms in
2026
Where you're getting the exposure you're talking about like how do you even get that? How do you get that? How do we get at our hd?
Like how do you do that?
So let me see as you know
Because I'm also part of a few different
groups where it's like people sell I and sell digital assets
and
groups we have a section that are where people can buy and sell
Instagram
And one day I was browsing so maybe 2019 2020 and I saw someone post like hey
I've got a three letter handle that's on instagram
That's in the car space if you're interested, please reach out
So on these on these groups or whatever you're not out to what you're not allowed to like publicly disclose what you're selling
So it's like you kind of like have to like say like oh, I'm selling this this many characters. It's in this nature blah blah blah
So I was also just posted they have a three letter instagram handle that's in the car niche
You're interested. Please reach out. I reached out to this guy. I was expecting maybe like msx gtr
Whatever and then a bean jdm
so
I asked them how much you wanted and the price it's only was just absolutely ridiculously cheap
Astronomical I can imagine. Yeah, it was pretty I mean it was it was an astronomically high. It was astronomically cheap
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I was really really cheap. I'm like, I didn't even like I didn't even argue with the price
I'm like done like let's just make this happen
So wow, yeah fast forward a couple days after that
I ended up acquiring the instagram that jdm instagram handle was zero followers
And pretty much built it up from there up from zero to over a million
Yeah, I saw that I was I mean I've been following it for a while
But it was like 1.1 million or something like that and I'm just like dude. This is like silly
This is ridiculous and you know what I notice is because obviously some of your posts are like
reposts right you're reposting which
Do respect but what I noticed about yours compared compared to other accounts that do that is
Anything that you reposted is like quality
Photos quality like content. It's not you're not just reposting like silliness or like memes or
Things like attention grabbers. It's actual quality content that matters to people in in this culture
And I thought that was legit. Yeah, I mean obviously as you guys know that instagram handle is very very special
I didn't want to just kind of like
Buncher it would just print that everyone else in their mom post things
So it's like I just kind of want to focus more into higher quality
You know back in the day you would see all these instagram handles that also these all the instagram accounts
That would be pushing those videos of like the turbo keychain and things like that
Yeah, like you guys have no idea
Let me dm where people were saying like please like will you repost my video repost my video?
I'm like no, I'm not going down that path. I want to keep this kind of clean good quality and just repost like the sickest jdm cars out there
Yeah, that's cool. That's I mean that that's sweet because you didn't just like sell out
You know, I guess if you would consider it that I mean some people would just consider it doing business
But you kept it true to what you guys want to do which I think is
Legit but like come on. So like was it like
Double digits triple digits like how like did you pay over a thousand bucks?
Like I don't need a specific number. But like, you know, like let me go around and be like, dude
I know the guy he bought it for triple digits, dude. Like that's crazy. It was four digits. It was in the lower
Okay, I because if you were saying three, I was like you should go to jail because you thefted that from that man
But like four digits dude like okay, like, you know
That that's decent on both of you guys behalf is an instagram handle. So
um, but now
Dude at 1.1 million followers, like I'm not saying you would ever sell it but
That's a that's a decent amount of digits that you would get for that thing because you've not it's not only just
JDM, but it's has a huge following
So like props to you for having the patience and consistency to build it to that point
Appreciate it
Yeah, I mean, what what does it even take to
To build that kind of following in a relatively short amount of time on like a platform that you know had been established for that
Like instagram's been established for a long time. Yeah, uh, how'd you how'd you do it?
I was like, what's the secret, you know, when I had zero followers?
Obviously, I needed to do something. So what I did was obviously you guys know
There's so many JDM instagram account handles out there
Um, what I did was I just reached out to as many as I possibly could and just asked them
Okay, like how much would you guys just charge for a simple shout out?
Like I just want to get some exposure to the official JDM account and
I worked with several different other JDM accounts and try them out and you know
See which ones would give me the best results as far as my ROI
And then I just kind of like ran that until I hit 10,000 followers and then from 10,000 followers
I just grew organically it just went from like
100 followers per day 200 followers per day
It got to the point where we're doing like, you know, two three thousand new followers per day
And then from there just kept going bigger and bigger and then obviously as you guys see we're over a million
Yeah, so
Really, you know for those million followers, you just had an initial investment
And then after that now, right, you've just kept turning it over through from that initial investment. Essentially. That's cool
Exactly. Yeah. So shout out to those guys with the other JDM instagram accounts that kind of helped boost things along
Yeah, that's sweet. So I mean, hey, yeah props to you for recognizing the fact that it wasn't just you guys posting like dope
Shit, it was the fact that other people were willing to buy into it in the sense of taking a risk of posting your stuff and
That's cool. I also feel like just people seeing the fact that there was a JDM instagram account also helped big time
It's like, oh crap, like there's a jdm instagram account
Like I just want to go follow it just because the name is cool, you know, I mean, it's not like
JDM Kings one two three. It's actually just JDM
So it's like I felt like that also helped contribute to the like exponential growth and everything and it just was a big huge
novel
So I know you said you like your your focus isn't tiktok. Like that's cool
But you did manage to do the same for that. So same type of story or what?
So with the tiktok handle, we found out that someone had the tiktok handle, but it was considered inactive
um, and on these
um
On these groups that I'm a part of there's a guy there that like sells services where he can actually acquire you guys like acquire
Um handles that are considered inactive and in order to afford to be inactive
It has to be like there can't be like posts on it and like with a certain time period
Like the person can't really like be logged in through the accounts and we actually found out the guy that owned the jdm tiktok handle
It was considered inactive. So I ended up paying like also low four digits for that handle as well
Just for this guy. Yeah, just for this guy to go out of his way to like
acquire this inactive account for us
Shoot dude, that's cool. Like
Like when you're going when you're going for the top, which is what you're doing when you're trying to get at jdm. That's like
I do. I don't know what that's the equivalent of like, you know in other spaces at tits
I don't know like really cool things, right? Like like dude, you guys are up there, dude
You know, so like when you when you're going that you
At least I own a turbo. I used to own tuned
I used to own. Oh, wow. So I just like
Dang, okay, oops, whatever you would see some more than things
That's like a deal. Like maybe I can spend a book
So I have just I see we're not like buying the speed of just the most amount of user names
And I knew what the liquidating most of them and just kind of focused on the jdm
This is obviously okay
Yeah
Um
Yeah, I mean, I guess that makes sense. But still dude props for getting in on two platforms. That that's really cool. So
Thank you. So jdm.com is next for us. Yes
That's cool. That would be cool. That's tough because of the it's the internet and that is the biggest platform of all
Whereas, you know, obviously
Instagram whatnot that's that's a little different. But dude, if you guys get that like
Hello props to you. That's that's legit. That price is high as six figures. Yeah. Yeah, we we got a price on that and like, oh my god
It's some professor in North Carolina that owns it too. What? Yeah, it's a random guy that owns it. No
Wow, and he just sees he just sees the value because he you know
Just the amount of people that even type that in I'm sure is the thing let alone anything else. So that's that's pretty wild
Yeah, and then you see it's a three-letter. It's a dot-com. It's been registered
There's something there or something
Yeah
But there will there will be that's the hard part boys. That is the hard part
There will be somebody that'll be willing to pay for it at some time
Along this this ride, right? Like that's what's hard about it is like, you know, kind of like what you talk about with cars and bids like
You know, we're we're all like entrepreneurs, right? We're all trying to build something. We're all trying, you know trying to reach that goal, but
There are dudes like us, but like they got like the cars and bids money like they got the like that's what's hard
You know as you got to do your best with what you have even though there are guys that
Have that you know what I mean
Yeah, and I think that's what we're trying to do too is like we bootstrapped this whole thing with just our own money and
Try to
Avoid raising money outside money so we don't lose the freedom
I've seen that in the past where like outside money comes in and it turns into like
Oh, you got to you got to get an ROI as fast as possible and then the freedom goes and then the
Quality you can't control the quality and absolutely loses its soul where I think of the JDM space
Man, yeah, it's all about personality. It's all about like
Soul I guess in in a whole car space. So we don't want to lose that
Yeah, I agree. I would say
You know because it's not all about money success isn't all about money, right?
And so I would say though over all the most successful people that we've met along our journey in this culture were
Like the good people, right? I would say they were the people with
the
The best like
They want to do the right thing within the space
Not just make the money, you know, and they're passionate about it. They're actually into the cars and yes into the scene
Yeah, absolutely. I would I would agree with that
So I think you guys got the right recipe when it comes to that, you know what I mean and then
Dude, you guys know what you're doing converting that recipe into actual traffic that
Creates the next JDM. Well the only JDM soul JDM marketplace
Yeah, right. I mean there's you you don't really have a
A competitor within the space. There's just competitors within the broad
Like reach of the space so to speak I guess
I think there's some there's some guys like
Cars from japan and stuff that are
from japan
and they do a lot of the
exporting services where
I think we realize the gap again because of the trust issues like people
Want to get into a JDM car? But then it's like, oh, how do I import one and then that huge knowledge gap is so big and
Again sending somebody that you don't know money and so
First we found out people try to
Find something local if they can't find a local state
region and then nation and then
Something that we've started doing right now is partnering up with some of the dealers that
um
That are on our platform when people can't find a car in the marketplace
They can request to get one imported and then some of the verified dealers that we have we send them
The leads depending on if it's their expertise and try to match them up that way
Okay, that makes sense. I mean so now you're kind of like uh, you're almost like a middle man, but you're now you're um
You're not the middle man because you're not really dealing with the transaction. You're connecting the people correct. Yeah, I see
Yeah, that's cool because you don't have to
You don't have to have your your hand in in that pot, right?
I'm sure whoever the exporter is kicks you back a little a few but whatever right because there's the connection there
But you're not actually doing the paperwork and that's probably the best place to be in because it's not it's not necessarily on you
So to speak
Yeah, yeah, I think we we um
Made a decision pretty early on too is like own the journey not the transaction
So we're trying there's like there's so many bits and pieces that go
Through the journey of like searching for a car inspecting a car buying a car shipping a car financing a car
And it's like can we fill in those voids and can we make it like a seamless experience that people just like get a lot of value
and then
We don't have to collect on the actual transaction. We can collect just a little bit along all those pieces of that journey
Okay, I see so that was another question was
What like so
What's your cut?
You know what if i'm going to sell my car on yours and I sell it or just listing like how does the
How do you guys make money or you know, what would I expect to pay or like yeah
Do you get to pay the price that's listed on the website or you know, like are there
You know extra fees added on top like how does all that work?
That's totally free. Um, it's totally free for you guys to create an account and list
We do have dealer programs
So if dealers do want to get more exposure
To the dealership itself if they want to have be verified on the platform then they can
sign up for a monthly dealer package
and then um
Right now we have just affiliate partnerships with
like carvax and
The financing companies and our whole shipping module that you can get your car ship
So we just take little bits and pieces there
Um, I see again. We don't want to get into the in the middle of the transaction
Mm-hmm. That makes sense. You know make your money off people making money
Not make your money off people just looking to buy a car
Yeah, and I think man, it's
With the market like our biggest competitor. I would want to say is probably facebook marketplace or the groups the facebook groups
Um, but it's and it's all free, right? You you get large reach. It's all free. So people are used to that
um
And but it's also really fragmented
Like there are so many different groups that you got to be part of and
What we all saw areas in marketplace that you got to search across all yeah
Yeah, and then what we learned too what we learned too is
There's a lot of people that are into the jdm cars that
Don't use social media
Right. I think yeah, I think I think the jdm space like
Um
Like the the popular cars the skylines the supras
The sylvias there's that
That people are on social media for but then there's all these niche markets all the like the vans the k trucks that are used for
Like actual farm life like those people are not on social media
So that's where yeah, that's where we're getting that opportunity like on the google search traffic is when people
are searching
With high intent so like nissan skyline for sale or k trucks for sale or whatever
They come to our website. They already have like an intent to purchase the vehicle. So the lead quality is much higher for us
um
So yeah, it's it's a great opportunity that we're in
Yeah, I I mean it it seems it it just seems right. It's one of those things. It's not overnight
You have to ramp up to it. You have to build it
The you got sweat equity like your sweat equity is huge, right? Obviously
You know if you guys were getting paid for all that sweat equity, you'd be rich
Like that's how it is when you do things like this
But then
All of a sudden it it starts turning over which i'm sure you guys have or we'll see you know with those numbers
It it's like dude. We finally did it
You know, we're finally getting that that number that we had imagined, you know when we first put this together
so, um
Yeah, we're always cheering on guys that are trying stuff like this, you know our bootstrapping are just
So passionate about the culture that they can't help but
Want to have a solid piece in it. So, um, that's legit guys for sure
Top rank
So I yeah, I got it from top rank in japan and that's how I was able to you know experience it over there
How was your experience with
Um, I mean dude, it was it was awesome. Like
It was great. I have no complaints. They
Had the car ready whenever I showed up in japan and I I got to take it
They had me at fuji speedway twice to
You know be able to enjoy the car on a legitimate japanese track and uh, we both got to drive it on track, you know, so
Dude my like are they do they respond to you the second that you send them an email or a text message? No
But like otherwise I have no complaints, you know, but that's that is what it is, right?
Yeah, where'd you get yours? I got mine from garage defend
Oh, that's cool. Yeah, we stopped by there and checked it out. It's awesome. Yeah, they definitely got a really cool, uh inventory
We just I just got I just went to japan in january because I've helped a close buddy of mine also purchased his car
He also used that to base side blue
Um, nice. Nice. It was a little mild generic thing
And I told him like I was only willing to help him if we made a trip out of it and go to japan and see in person
He's like man, like you may have to post my arm. Like let's do it. Yeah, that sounds awesome
Yeah, that whole thing it just kind of like opened my eyes. I'm like, oh, maybe we should start offering like something like
JDM tourism on the side here where we could take guys out, you know, show them their car that they're buying and you know
Yeah
It's a cool idea for the future obviously, but I thought it was really really, really sweet
Where'd you have to pick it up from?
His car
Yes
My car to talk about. Oh, no his car his car as well also came from a garage defend
Okay, uh, so do they have a new spot like the like a JDM global or something like that on the backside of their building?
Yeah, yeah, so that's like their partner like their sister
Um, dealership or whatever. It's like all part of like the same ecosystem
Nice. Nice. Yeah, that that whole area is cool. Yeah, I know when we went it's like right
It's like rice fields out behind it and like there's random like
Integra type r over here and evo over here. It was just like wild. We were like
They had cars everywhere or whatever, but yeah, it's a cool spot
What would uh, what year were you guys there or like how long ago you guys that I think it was 23 is when we were
at garage defend. Yeah
So, you know, it was a little while ago before they had the new building for sure
Got the JDM global. Yeah, it's it's cool though
Right because you hear about these things you see them on the internet and then you're actually there and you're like, wow
This is like this is this is a little beat up, but it's sweet
You know, these cars inside are amazing, you know, obviously because they had garage defend just you walk in and you're like, uh
Yeah, this is crazy dreams. Yeah, they show you guys they're out there like storage facility like maybe like five minutes away
No, we didn't we didn't get that treatment when we went but they were super hospitable
I'm not sure who it was. I think it was the manager the owner not Dostin
But another guy and he was working on like a lexus. Yeah doing something random and he's just like, oh, hey here
And you know, he did show us around and it was a cool experience for sure
Yeah, that's awesome
I feel like nowadays one of these JDM shops in japan are definitely seeing as huge influx of tourism visitors coming from america
So it's like, oh, like they kind of like got a cater to that like I think we did the way where we went to mines
We went to top secret
um, you know all the cool shops and I can definitely see that
The vibe has changed compared to when I went to japan 60 ago
When I the very first time I went to japan 60 years ago, you would go to these shops and no one would really
Care about you or whatever versus now you were just there exactly nowadays. It's like all they they're more welcoming
They see like this, you know huge influx of tourism that are
Tourists that are coming to japan not just because of the food but because of the cars
So it's like they want to kind of be the forefront and like, you know, help these people and you know
Be way more welcoming compared to a long time ago
Yeah, and also right when they're like, hi, like, you know, whatever come on come on in
You're more likely to spend money with that company because now you have that personal connection
So if they continue to shrug you off because they were already busy, right?
So they're they're like, I don't even need to deal with you now
They're like we need to deal with you because hopefully you will spend money with us and they're seeing that american money
Is probably helping them stay afloat a little better than we would realize
Exactly. Did you guys get a chance to go to like mines at all or any of those other shops?
I got to go to mines. He didn't go to mine. Yeah, we did a mori factory. Um, I mean
Trial we went to spoon spoon
Yeah, we we went yeah, we went to a bunch. We spent a bunch. Yeah jays. Yeah, he's racing. Um
Yeah, I mean it's it's cool. We got to go to fat five land with digocytoh and
He was drifting. Yeah, and it that was a really cool thing as well. Jesse took us there. Jesse
Brought us to a few pretty cool places. He was he was very very cool. Yeah
But so, okay vitally, I know that right now
I know you had supras and I know that right now you do not have a car like a JDM car
I don't man. I was actually what's it gonna be? That's what that's all we that's why we did this whole podcast dude
It wasn't about any of the other stuff. We just want to know what you're getting for a car
So if I was to build another car right now, um
I like fd's and I like 2j's so I think I I do
A 2j swap in an fd
But I was I was talking to
A buddy stewart who who was on your guys's podcast too and he had that um loves to Arthur. Yeah, he's awesome, man
yeah
He he posted his r32 up
saw that a swap over the weekend and
Oh, man, it's so tempting. But that's so clean. It's insane
He is like he is an artist like he may not see it that way
But like you see the bait of that car and you're like dude come on
Absolutely, man
The the only the only thing that I was I can't get over is that it's it can't be titled and now like
I have
Yeah, it's a full on race car and I wanted something that I can street
and take to the track
Some yeah something because you have a child
I do. Yeah, something you want to be able to yeah. Yeah. So like for sure. Yeah, that's that's tough
That is a that is a car to buy like you there's a few things that you got to do to it
But like dude, yeah, that that is a car to buy but okay, you can't do that
You're gonna do the rx7 with the 2j. Yep. Yeah, that's cool. That's yeah
Yeah, for sure you get rid of all the issues
Yeah
now um my drift car I had a s13
with a 2j and
I think I
Replicate that whole style again. There's like a deep green and
ssr's and
Dump tubes out of the exhaust and but it's all like
Still build it's super clean super streetable and
Inside it's a full on race car
Wow. Yeah. Yeah, that's sick. Hey, you like we were just talking about this the other day
Like yeah, we need we need to get to know more rx7 guys
We know a lot of gtr guys a ton of gtr guys and skyline guys
But like we need to get to know a few more supra and and rx7 guys. So I'm glad you threw that out there
Quick questions to you guys you guys think uh left hand drive supra as a jdm car
Oh, no, not this. Oh man, dude. Come on. Um, I think
Right, I think that it is not a
JDM car. I think
And I know just as well as you it just gets lumped like just all of these cars just if they're
Japanese, you know, they get lumped into it. It's a JDM car, but
I mean, I would say anything that isn't right hand drive that wasn't converted to left hand drive
Right, right. Yeah. I mean anything that was only sold in japan is
JDM, right? So left hand drive supra
So so then is the right hand drive super jdm because
Wait, wait, what? What?
That that was a good question, man. I mean, I think I think, you know, a lot of that is just
How you perceive it, right? But yeah, I would say if it's made in and produced in japan, that's a jdm car
If it's it's if it's a super from america, it's a usdm supra, right?
We always go back and forth. Yeah. Well, yeah
We get like supers left-hand drive like people submit supers or like
Accurana sexes
Yeah, it's like
What is this? How should how should we
Classify
Oh, your site. Oh, I
Yeah, that goes. Yeah, that's tough. I personally think because
What you're searching for is
Exposure, right and and we know that a left hand and a right hand drive or a car from japan a car that was sold here
Those park next to each other and they are both supers, right? Like so that's the hard thing me if I own that website
I am for sure allowing
Left-hand drive cars to be sold because I want that exposure and I'm not selling a cavalier
You know what? I mean, I'm selling right hand drive
If it's a toy. Oh, yeah
Okay, unless it was a Toyota cavalier and then in that sense, but you get what like in my opinion. I'm like, okay
Yeah, this is a japanese car, right? Yeah, I think that makes sense too
Like it would make sense to have them on your website because
I don't know me. I'm a skyline guy. They didn't make left hand drive skylines
So it doesn't matter to me if I'm shopping for a skyline. It's going to be from japan
But you know if someone's shopping for an nsx or even a supra like a supra is a good good case since there's such a
Variance in price from the us to the jdm one
So someone that wants a supra that's just in the market for a supra doesn't matter
They could come across their car on your site and say, oh, okay
The usdm one's a way better buy or the jdm was a way better parent contrast, you know convert to having a jdm car
Yeah, that's true
And again exposure, right like now you have guys looking for both
Yeah, left and right hand drive coming to yours instead of
Say like kind of pushing away those people that hey, they love supers just prefer left hand drive
You know what I mean needs a usdm section
Yes
Yeah, I mean
I guess you would have to figure out how to
I'm this is all up to you guys
But you would have to figure out how to differentiate because if I am looking for left hand drive
I don't want to just click on super and there's a bunch right right hand drive ones in there. So
That's tough with that type of car, but the nsx you're just honda or acura, you know, like so that's a little easier
But yeah, sorry to go off on a whole thing, but that's like wow
Consider start us up. Yeah
Enjoy your super manual
This is that this is left hand drive and this one is not mine
This is our close friends that friend that stores it in here over the winter. But yeah, his is is a usdm super so
Right
Matt was through the super community because I had a 95
sd edition hard time super
Time that's how you have a shot and they primarily focused on super's level time and this was
20 something years ago or whatever and you know, we need an I need a place to take my super
Oh, that's cool. Yeah, so it's bank cars from the jump. Oh, yeah for sure
Yeah, that's super is word like 25 grand or 30 grand for them. Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah
Yeah, I remember those days too
I remember looking up supers on ebay like way like way back in the day and yeah, they were 25 to 35
And I was like dude someday. I'll have 35 grand and like I'm getting one of those
You know what I mean and like, you know by the time I have the money. They're like 68 or 79 or 150 or 200
I don't know. They're crazy dude. Like
The nice ones are crazy. So
But hey, dude, it's an icon
It is just like the 34 just like the rx7, you know, these cars are icons. So
You know, it's like anything else, dude, you pay for it
So, okay, so before we wrap this up guys we're like
I know I know what you said like immediately but like
Long term like long term
Like if everything goes mint, this thing pops off like we're all buying our cars on jdmsupply.com. Like it's it's awesome
What's like what is next like what's the end game if there was one for you guys?
Dan good question, man, um
I mean I I envision I envision us
One day having that jdm
Main website and not being limited to just cars. I think there's also a huge opportunity for parts
Oh, yeah
Yeah, like ebay, but for just used used jdm parts. Yeah, I was gonna say that earlier
But I just didn't want to throw too much at you. Yeah, I think parts and I also think like
On the on the jdm like the instagram and the social aspect of it. There's also a play in the lifestyle
like the
The apparel and all that
And we've had some ideas and like can we do apparel and like
one of the things the thoughts that we had is like
Can we do
Also giveaways and a person like we can have a car. That's a giveaway car
But if you don't want that then you can choose a car that's on our marketplace
And I do different things around there and combine the two but hopefully just build a
Cool
Like ecosystem for jdm spaceman. That's that has trust that has integrity
like
solves all those issues that
Exists right now
Yeah, I mean and so we you know, obviously being in this space. We've talked about, you know, a million things just like you guys, right?
You've talked about a million different ways that things can go and and yeah, like the
the name jdm supply is
So awesome because it literally to one person
It doesn't even mean cars and they're disappointed when they go there
To your website because it's cars, you know, there is obviously like you said with the lifestyle thing
There is a trillion things that people want from japan, you know, that are just little trinkets
Whatever they may be that are just so unique, you know that
Right, there's opportunities for you guys across the board like get those purple red bulls, dude
Because those things
They go for a mint, you know what I mean? So right you you guys have like so many options
I can't imagine, you know, some of the conversations you've had
It's fascinating. One of the dealers that's on our platform. His main business is
um, Japanese diapers and baby baby stuff
That was his way. Yeah, that's that's that's his main thing. He's got a store like set up in Miami and
The cars can't second to him and I'm like, god dang man, there's so much
There's so much stuff there. Yeah, but I think primarily just focus on the automotive space the automotive motorcycles that
um, there's a lot to do there
Were you gonna say something alec?
Yeah, I mean right you can't go too broad or else you get stressed and then you're like not able to give quality
To the thing that you actually started out wanting to do because you're you're just too stretched
I mean that that can happen pretty easily
um
So, okay, so I know we've we've talked about it
But can you let the listeners watchers all of that? No?
Okay, like hey, I hadn't really heard of this
Where can I list my car if I want to go list list my 33 over here because i'm tired of it
Where do I go and and what's the process real quick?
Yeah
Listing on our website obviously is what's how I mentioned before is free. Um, honestly the process is super simple
Maybe even simpler than a baseball marketplace
Just you know add the title add add a few descriptions
Input the bin number upload a couple photos and then boom it goes into an approval process
We get notified that a listing has been added
Then we just go through it and accept it and then you're going to email just saying your
Listing was approved and that's pretty much it
So I'm going to jdmsupply.com and am I creating an account first? Is that yeah, okay cool
Create an account first
Verify your email and then not it upload your car go through the whole process
Yeah, that's pretty cool. I mean that's simple, right? Yeah
And so does jdmsupply have a separate instagram?
Yes, yeah, can you shout it out for us?
Yeah, just add jdmsupply and we just post currently for sale there just to get some extra exposure as well
Nice. All right, sweet. So
Those are those are the good ways. Do you guys have a youtube or like anything like that?
We do have a youtube but we just kind of kind of primarily use it to post like videos that users have sent us to embed
Okay, but that is one thing that we do want to also focus on this year is getting our faces out there on our youtube channel
And actually shooting some content and things like that
Like I was telling you like this last trip to japan that I went with some buddies to go buy his scale
And I'm like man, I should have just really just been recording this whole time and
Yeah, getting it out there. So I'm going forward. That's going to be the plan and obviously we're going to utilize our youtube channel for that
So it's just add jdmsupply as well
Okay, that's cool. So you're pretty straight across the board. Yeah
Guys we appreciate you coming on like we love hearing the story of of guys like us just like
Clon away man. Just like trying to reach that goal and and like
Serve the community, which is really what it is, right? Like you like at the at the heart of it
You're literally just trying to help people find their car that they're going to fall in love with and
That's pretty sick. Oh, yeah, it's awesome. It is
Thank you guys. Thank you for having us too. Yeah, definitely
Yes, for sure. So uh, yeah guys like we're rooting you on a hundred percent like, you know for sure
If I if I got the chance to sell a car if I'm going to sell one
I'll I'll list it man because you know every listing brings in one at least one new viewer, right?
So, uh, I'm definitely down to help in any way that we can for sure. Hell, yeah
Thank you. Cool. Um, so
For this episode of the right hand drive guys podcast. I'm bobby. This is erin alec and vitally
See you. See you
Thanks
That was awesome guys
About this episode
Alek and Vitaly from JDMSupply.com break down how they built a JDM-focused marketplace by blending tech, marketing, and car culture. After early auction attempts struggled with trust and short timelines, they pivoted to classifieds to grow traffic and an email list. Their first big win was Alek’s low-mileage Quick Silver Supra, which went viral. They discuss bootstrapping, affiliate revenue (not taking transaction cuts), and plans to regain auctions via influencer partnerships, better SEO, and event exposure. They also share how they acquired top-tier JDM Instagram/TikTok handles and debate what counts as “JDM” for left-hand-drive cars.
Original notes
In this episode of the Right Hand Drive Guys Podcast, we sit down with Alek and Vitaly, the team behind JDM Supply — a growing marketplace dedicated to connecting enthusiasts with JDM cars around USA.
Beyond the platform, they also run the coveted @JDM handle on Instagram and TikTok, putting them right at the center of the culture and giving them a front-row seat to trends, demand, and what enthusiasts are really chasing right now.
We talk about how they built JDM Supply, what it takes to run a marketplace in today’s import scene, and how their passion for JDM cars drives everything they do. From sourcing cars to shaping the online community, this episode is all about the intersection of culture, business, and pure enthusiasm.
🎙️ From scrolling to sourcing — this is how JDM culture lives online and in real life.
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