Ulog #4: The Retail Arbitrage Game

A few months ago I became a third party seller on Amazon. There are different ways of building up your inventory, such as drop shipping or buying in bulk from discount stores.

The way I like to do it is sometimes called retail arbitrage. This is where you buy an item in a store for one price and then flip it on Amazon for a profit. Amazon provides its sellers with a nifty little app that you can use to scan the barcodes of items, or even just scan the item itself and it will find listings already on Amazon and show you what you can sell it for. So you know before you even buy the item if its worth reselling or not. Easy peasy.

There are of course some things that you may not sell on Amazon. The app tells you if the item is restricted to you. My only complaint so far is the fees that Amazon takes. Its pretty much half of the selling price. Which is why I only buy inventory that costs $5 or less.

I think of it as a game. How little can I spend, and how much can I get in return? It works because Amazon provides such a competitive marketplace. If you can't find something locally, you know that you can pretty much find it on Amazon and get it delivered quickly and cheaply. People pay for convenience.

I enjoy finding items that people are looking for and providing them via Amazon. I try to pick items that I think I would buy myself. Its challenging and fun and I think if I can stick with it, it could provide a little income each month.

Today I got a great haul. Our local liquidation store was having a tent sale. Everything was 25 cents. I spent $19 and ended up with somewhere between $500 and $800 worth of inventory. 😍🙌

Some of these items were worth $15-30 each in profit and I was able to snag multiples of them.

Now I just have to be patient and wait for it all to sell. Wish me luck!

Love and light to all who read this!