Could have made a killing on fidget spinners, but I found them after every flea market and gas station had them. All the fba and eBay videos were talking about sourcing and selling those. I think my story would have been very similar if I didn't second guess it. At least you know the framework if you ever try again.

I do my own photos to save a bit. It's actually simple. A small lightbox, a couple lights, and a decent camera for the photos. Photoshop cs2 is a free download you can use to remove the background. Tutorials are abundant, but you only need to know like 3 tools in Photoshop to get it done. The art and branding is more creative and time consuming, so I would still pay for that if I had no experience.