Connor Stone, 31, an ex-soldier from Nottingham, has quit his full-time job at DHL after his small side hustle grew to earn him up to £40,000 a month. He began reselling hard-to-find items during the Covid-19 pandemic and now runs the business full-time, selling around 300 items a day.
Stone said the new business has allowed him to give his son Alfie, now 11 months, "a childhood (he) didn't have", which he says is "worth more than anything". He and his wife Lauren, 32, welcomed Alfie in October 2025 after suffering seven miscarriages while struggling to conceive.
From Army to DHL to full-time reselling
Stone joined the British Army in 2019 and became a movement controller in the Royal Logistic Corps the following year. During the pandemic in 2020, while living in barracks, he decided he "wanted some extra cash" and began buying items that were in high demand but hard to get, including outdoor heaters, hair clippers and weights, selling them for a profit.
He gradually began selling clothes from his "own wardrobe" too, making a "few hundred" pounds a month. In 2024, Stone left the Army for a "fresh start" and took a job in logistics at DHL while continuing to resell. He eventually began using Whatnot, a live-shopping marketplace, under the username @BZRclothing.
Business grew out of a 'tough time'
Within six months, Stone said he was making in a week what he earned in a month at DHL, which paid him "just over" £2,000 a month. This prompted him to quit his job and pursue reselling full-time. He now hosts five livestreams a week and works with suppliers across Europe, the Middle East and Pakistan.
Stone said he has managed to "specialise" in selling vintage clothes, including Carhartt jackets, some of which sell for £2,000 or £1,000 despite looking worn. "To the normal eye, some of my vintage Carhartt jackets look tatty with holes in, and people would stay away from it, but I do research and find out when it was made," he told PA Real Life.
Future plans and family life
Stone now makes between £20,000 and £40,000 a month in turnover. He is looking forward to using his earnings to take Alfie to Disneyland for his first birthday and hopes to grow the business further and eventually hire additional staff.
"Being able to come out of having a tough time struggling to conceive and now provide and give my son a childhood I didn't have, that's worth more than anything I could ever do," he said. "Because of my job being flexible, I'll be there for the big milestones, without having to worry about taking annual leave."
