Post: #1

Slate.com did an interesting article on a new innovation to do with selling used books.

It is a couple of years old now - so I am not sure how relevent it still is. But I just want to pass along the link since it makes for interesting reading. And I am curious to see if others are familar with this?

Here is the opening paragraph of the article:

Quote:I make a living buying and selling used books. I browse the racks of thrift stores and library book sales using an electronic bar-code scanner. I push the button, a red laser hops about, and an LCD screen lights up with the resale values.

It feels like being God in his own tiny recreational casino; my judgments are sure and simple, and I always win because I have foreknowledge of all bad bets. The software I use tells me the going price, on Amazon Marketplace, of the title I just scanned, along with the all-important sales rank, so I know the book's prospects immediately. I turn a profit every time.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/cultu...esman.html

Post: #2

Genius.

Post: #3

I looked into it a while ago. It seems like you would need to do a lot of volume to make good money. There are tons of people doing this now.

That being said you can get some great finds. I got a first edition of east of eden a while back that was going for 100 on eBay. Had iy the dust cover it would be worth $500

Post: #4

80 hours a week for a thousand dollars a week? So just under 50k a year before taxes... Not that great imho.

Post: #5

Retail arbitrage.

This has been around since forever. There are tons of these guys doing it, and a ton of resources on this too. One advantage is that there's low overhead: you can just start with inventory. If you want to scale up, the only other things you'll need are: a scanner, scanner subscription (~$20/month), resources to "clean up" your products, Amazon Professional Account ($40/month).

This isn't a "Genius" idea, but it does work.

That said, the thing is that this is NOT a passive business. You need to spend time sourcing and finding deals in thrift shops, discounted retailers, etc (good luck leaving the US and doing this). Although there might be a tiny skills transfer if you want to get into another eCommerce field, this business model just doesn't seem too fulfilling to me.

Post: #6

This was my first post on the forum: /thread-14723-...#pid263789

I have made a shitload of money from doing just that. I don't even need the money from doing this, but when I see a great bargain when I'm out(even at retail stores), I'll jump on it. I was at Walmart a few months back and saw a half dozen Straight Talk AT&T micro sim cards for $15 a piece. I bought everyone of them, sold them all within two weeks for an average profit of $43 a pop. There's money to be made everywhere if you know where to look.

Books have made me the most by far though in that business. If any of you have questions about doing this, feel free to ask.

Post: #7

How do you know whats valuable? How do you find the good stuff?

I tried trolling flea markets a couple of time but all I could find was worthless junk. Also tried buying and selling used books from my university there was hardly any profit in it.

My buddys a film geek and used to buy/sell really weird and rare movies. Said there was good money to be made.

Post: #8

(06-24-2013 06:12 PM)w00t Wrote:  How do you know whats valuable? How do you find the good stuff?

I tried trolling flea markets a couple of time but all I could find was worthless junk. Also tried buying and selling used books from my university there was hardly any profit in it.

My buddys a film geek and used to buy/sell really weird and rare movies. Said there was good money to be made.

That's why scanners became a useful tool an retail arbitrage. After scanning, you see what the market price is and have a rough idea of the demand (from the range of prices charged on Amazon and the Amazon sales rank).

If you scan a book selling for $2 and see it selling for $15 lowest price on Amazon and the book is of a reasonably low (read: good) sales rank, then that's a worthwhile endeavor.

A good rule of thumb I've seen from reading about this is: if I can sell the item at at least three times the price of the purchasing price, then it is worthwhile, and the item better be above $10. The reason of this is that you have to pay an Amazon referral fee, a fulfillment fee if you are using a fulfillment network, shipping as well as other risks such as stranded inventory (no one buys), return hassles, price fluctuations, etc, so considering this into account, you get back twice the money.

If you can't scan it, then it comes down to market knowledge and experience. Probably not worth risking if you're a newbie considering the huge amount of stuff you can scan. Basically, a common approach is: scan everything.

Books are profitable because they are super convenient: compact and the presence of an ISBN number.

The more you get into, the more you will know about which items tend to sell. For example, fiction books turn to be worth shit, but niche textbooks have value.

In the end, it's a volume business; the skill here is figuring out where you can source the most products at the highest margins spending the least possible amount of time.