I finally made my first sale doing amazon arbitrage

sirmeep · May 3, 2017

I had a sketched out an idea around something like this. But instead focusing on out of print books. The general framework would be something like this...

1. Identify highly priced out of printed books ($50+)
2. Find them in your local library, Create high Resolution Scans (including cover and book back)
3. Figure out a way to print a single instance that looks identical to the original (there is probably an online services)
4. List each book at slightly below the current market price
5. Print and ship when you get an order

The benefit is that you don't need to carry inventory. So it's more of per unit capital investment, rather then cost of sales kinda model... which is much easier to scale profitability.

The risk is that your infringing on copyright. But my guess is if the book is out of print, then the publisher/author don't really care to much about tracking potential copyright violations.

Anyways, congrats on the sale.

udt89 · May 3, 2017

sirmeep said:
I had a sketched out an idea around something like this. But instead focusing on out of print books. The general framework would be something like this...

1. Identify highly priced out of printed books ($50+)
2. Find them in your local library, Create high Resolution Scans (including cover and book back)
3. Figure out a way to print a single instance that looks identical to the original (there is probably an online services)
4. List each book at slightly below the current market price
5. Print and ship when you get an order

The benefit is that you don't need to carry inventory. So it's more of per unit capital investment, rather then cost of sales kinda model... which is much easier to scale profitability.

The risk is that your infringing on copyright. But my guess is if the book is out of print, then the publisher/author don't really care to much about tracking potential copyright violations.

Anyways, congrats on the sale.

Lol let me know how that goes

PBNSurprise · May 3, 2017

Sneeks said:
Step 1: Buy kdc bluetooth bar code scanner

Step 2:

Buy The glove

Step 3:

Buy Profit Bandit for your phone or fbascan.

Step 4:

Profit faster and more efficiently.

i've seen these tools before. i don't think i'm going to get them because i don't plan to source books locally long term. i want to transition doing it online once i profit a few hundred. benefits of sourcing online are that it's more flexible, i can source books from my bed and profit straight from the computer

sirmeep said:
I had a sketched out an idea around something like this. But instead focusing on out of print books. The general framework would be something like this...

1. Identify highly priced out of printed books ($50+)
2. Find them in your local library, Create high Resolution Scans (including cover and book back)
3. Figure out a way to print a single instance that looks identical to the original (there is probably an online services)
4. List each book at slightly below the current market price
5. Print and ship when you get an order

The benefit is that you don't need to carry inventory. So it's more of per unit capital investment, rather then cost of sales kinda model... which is much easier to scale profitability.

The risk is that your infringing on copyright. But my guess is if the book is out of print, then the publisher/author don't really care to much about tracking potential copyright violations.

Anyways, congrats on the sale.

are you suggesting to scan a copy of an entire book, put it together and then selling these copies on amazon?

shezboy · May 3, 2017

hofstra1012 said:
If you don't mind me asking...how do you identify which books would be profitable? Do you scan in store with the Amazon app to see the potential profit or is it more gut instinct?

BassTrackerBoats said:
@shezboy can tell you the answer to that.

There are certain categories of books that you can always discard as they just don't work. And within the categories of books that do work there are always ones that work better than others.

Science, Biology, Sociology, Medical, Nursing, Higher level Maths, Physics, etc

If you think about the books that students HAVE to buy as part of their courses then you'll be heading in the right direction. A large percentage of students buy their books brand new and then have no need for them after they finish their course. Some students don't care about what they get for them so they sell them as a job lot on eBay or classified ad sites. Some students will simply donate the books to a charity shop.

You need to buy these books and get them shipped in to Amazon because there is a huge market for these used books due to the fact there are students who don't want to pay the new price for them but also don't want to get their hands dirty by trawling through used books in second hand shops.

Once you identify the market of books that are in demand then you can save a lot of your time when you go sourcing books because you're now looking for specifics. You must still check the 'seller rank' of that book, the current new and used prices as well as how many other sellers are listing that book as FBA.

I hope that helps.

Shez

rejoin14 · May 3, 2017

sirmeep said:
I had a sketched out an idea around something like this. But instead focusing on out of print books. The general framework would be something like this...

1. Identify highly priced out of printed books ($50+)
2. Find them in your local library, Create high Resolution Scans (including cover and book back)
3. Figure out a way to print a single instance that looks identical to the original (there is probably an online services)
4. List each book at slightly below the current market price
5. Print and ship when you get an order

The benefit is that you don't need to carry inventory. So it's more of per unit capital investment, rather then cost of sales kinda model... which is much easier to scale profitability.

The risk is that your infringing on copyright. But my guess is if the book is out of print, then the publisher/author don't really care to much about tracking potential copyright violations.

Anyways, congrats on the sale.

If I understood you correctly then this is illegal.

johnsim135 · May 3, 2017

That good for your country.In my country,most people only read textbook until university graduate only.

keenmobi · May 3, 2017

PBNSurprise said:
took one month of sourcing, listing, and sending in books to make a sale. it's pending so let's hope it goes through and i get the payment. this particular book i bought for $3.24 and sold it for $15.99, minus the fees the profit isn't so glamorous but it's my very first sale. time to source and list more books, keep hustling folks

EDIT: literally 5 minutes ago i got e-mailed that the order shipped and payment is complete, awesome

Yes, it really works! My friend also made several sales using your method.

sirmeep · May 3, 2017

udt89 said:
Lol let me know how that goes

Note my use of the terms 'sketched out an idea', as in to imply it was a brainstorm (◔_◔)

rejoin14 said:
If I understood you correctly then this is illegal.

Yes... copyright infringement is illegal... hence I noted it as a risk.

PBNSurprise said:
are you suggesting to scan a copy of an entire book, put it together and then selling these copies on amazon?

Yup, that's the basic idea, with an emphasis of looking for out of print, relatively rare books.

And just to reiterate, and hopefully prevent more people from getting their panties all up in a bunch, I'm not saying that OP should go out start scanning books from the library. Merely I thought the idea was a fun thought experiment.

udt89 · May 3, 2017

I just checked a few books in my house. Why are the fees 50% using the seller app? The pick and pack fee is like 5 bucks

PBNSurprise · May 3, 2017

udt89 said:
I just checked a few books in my house. Why are the fees 50% using the seller app? The pick and pack fee is like 5 bucks

there are several fees involved when you use amazon FBA, in my experience it usually accounts for 30% of the price of the book

udt89 · May 3, 2017

I really can't get one to be 30%

shezboy · May 3, 2017

The fees usually work out to around 30% of the sales price when the book is sold as FBA.

udt89 · May 4, 2017

shezboy said:
The fees usually work out to around 30% of the sales price when the book is sold as FBA.

So the seller app calculation isn't correct?

shezboy · May 4, 2017

udt89 said:
So the seller app calculation isn't correct?

As @PBNSurprise said, the seller fees usually work out to around 30%. I have never come across a book where the seller fees are 50%.

What book is it?

Shez

udt89 · May 4, 2017

here is a book I just grabbed off my shelf.

This is the book title.
Frommer's Hawaii 2017 (Complete Guide)

mike159 · May 4, 2017

PBNSurprise said:
yes i send my books to amazon, i buy until i'm able to fully package a box then ship it out. i use the amazon seller app to scan books

What do you mean fully package a box? So let's say you buy 5 books, then you send all 5 in the same box? Then Amazon takes it apart and packages them individually?

PBNSurprise · May 4, 2017

udt89 said:
I really can't get one to be 30%

sometimes you get books where the fees are 50%, this happens. take a look at this book here:

fees are around 50%, this is because fees are calculated based on the size of the book, in this case this book is fairly large in length and width, like a textbook, although not as thick as a textbook. also, if you're only able to price the book for $21.76 like i have, because of competition, then the fees will impact the profit more. certain FBA fees are fixed based on the size of the book. this is why it's better to sell smaller sized books as long as the profit is there, there are less fees

mike159 said:
What do you mean fully package a box? So let's say you buy 5 books, then you send all 5 in the same box? Then Amazon takes it apart and packages them individually?

i send about 15-20 books in at a time. you just put all the books in a large box and then send it to amazon, that's it

outscrape · May 4, 2017

If you live in a college town (I do), and you are in an uppity part of the country (I am), you might check out Little Free Libraries. I've gotten dozens of books released in the last year or two - some hardcover - that would be great for this.

(Obviously that's against the spirit of the Little Free Library.)

PBNSurprise · May 5, 2017

sold another book today, also found some good books at the thirft store, one in particular i bought for $2 and is worth $60-70. gonna go back there tomorrow to scan some more books

Jklmno · May 5, 2017

PBNSurprise said:
sold another book today, also found some good books at the thirft store, one in particular i bought for $2 and is worth $60-70. gonna go back there tomorrow to scan some more books

Wow, books overseas is really overpriced eh and Amazon sure take such a heavy fees. In my country selling in marketplaces pay no fee. And why bother paying book for heavy fees if I can get free book on the internet

I finally made my first sale doing amazon arbitrage

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