A Good Source to Buy Stuff for Selling on Amazon / eBay

Just a quick note to you loyal readers who are interested in my Working From Home series. Many of you are looking for a good place to buy products from to resell on either Amazon or eBay.

Here's my latest tip:

Visit iCoffeeNew.com (no affiliate link for me, I'm just sharing what I know) and check out their products. I was concerned about how legit they were at first so I tested the waters with five purchases. They delivered on all of them and are now starting to get rave reviews on referral sites like PriceGrabber from buyers.

An example of what I bought and resold:

Keurig K75 Single-Cup Home-Brewing System with Water Filter Kit, Platinum/Black

Buy it on iCoffeeNew for $105 with free shipping

Current going rate on the Amazon "buy box" which is what they call the main item page on Amazon (as opposed to clicking the link on the right side of the page to see who else might be selling it cheaper) is $175.  That's a $70 profit margin which is a nice range to be in. Don't forget Amazon will take a good chunk.

Listing on Amazon is free (eBay is not) so test the waters. Post the item for sale and price your coffee maker one penny below the lowest seller (the person offering the lowest price of a NEW item) by researching the prices on the right side of the Amazon screen:

This will show you all the sellers and lists them from the cheapest price first. Price your item one penny below the cheapest seller.

The lowest seller here is JAPreval. His price is $144 + shipping. When you list your item, price is at 143.99 ( as long as your shipping fee is the same). Whatever the case on shipping, just add the item price and the shipping together. If your item is one penny cheaper than JAPreval, then your advertisement will out rank his and you'll be at the top of the list. This is great advertisement for your store/item. This is exactly how I sell my stuff.

Post a couple for sale and wait. Sales are always better Friday, Saturday and Sunday when most people are home or just got paid. When you get a sale, collect the buyer's information from Amazon and go to iCoffeeNew.com and buy the coffee maker. Use your information for the BILLING information as you will be paying for it with your money. But use the BUYERS address as the SHIPPING address and have iCoffeeNew ship it straight to the BUYER from Amazon. (Note: on Amazon, they won't releases the sale to you until the buyer has paid the bill. The opposite is true on eBay. The buyer may make the purchase but YOU have to verified the buyer has paid the bill before you ship the item.)

Do NOT click the "shipping confirmation" button on the Amazon sale at this point. Amazon gives you a small grace period (usually 2-3 days) to ship out the item. After that grace period, your item sold will appear "late" on shipping. Amazon grades sellers based on several aspects and shipping your items out on time is one factor.  If you click the "shipping confirmation" button on the day you buy the item, it may be 3-5 day before you get a shipping tracking number from iCoffeeNew. Wait until you get a tracking number and then click the shipping confirmation button on Amazon. During that confirmation process, you will be prompted for a tracking number. 

Tracking numbers are also part of the Amazon grading scale. If you ship on time (by clicking the shipping confirmation button) but don't add a tracking number, it will affect your Seller Score with Amazon.

During the checkout process at iCoffeeNew, chose Free Shipping and during the last step, in the "Order Instructions" box type "Gift receipt only please. No prices."

You pay $105, Customer pays $143.99, Amazon keeps $27-ish and you pocket $12. That's not the greatest profit but it is an example of one item to sell. This brings up the idea we mentioned before about profit threshhold. Is $12 worth the effort? I think it is a little thin but there will be times when you won't find much to sell. A thin margin of profit may be all that is available sometimes. Keep an eye on the market too. You may find, as I often do, the seller who is selling at the thinnest margin (lowest profit point) sells out and drops off the list. When this happens, you need to reassess the selling prices because you can usually raise your price and increase your profit.

With a little practice and research, you can figure out which items have the biggest profit margin and use those to your advantage. Household goods have done particularly well for me: vacuum cleaners, coffee makers, juicers, and blenders. When I find a new source for buying from, I buy one or two and have them shipped to my house (marked as gifts). This lets me see what the customer will see when they receive an item marked "gift" from that company. The I spend a few extra bucks and just ship those items out from my location. Buying shipping through your Amazon account saves you a little on the shipping costs versus buying from Stamps.com or the local post office.

Either way, this is an example of one way to find products to sell. I'll be taking a break for a week or so from selling. While selling online certainly isn't akin to digging ditches, it is tough to keep track of 116 items being shipped while working a full time job. I find that it is a nice break to stop selling and let all the financial dust settle. Then I cash out from Amazon, pay off all the cards I've used (Kohl's, Best Buy, etc) and start fresh for the next cycle.

~OJD