Interestingly enough it seems that public mentions of this don't destroy business. Here is a Planet Money podcast from 2015 http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/07/26/539552579/episo.... I thought at this time the days for arbitrage like this would be counted. Apparently not.
28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon
21–30 of 203 posts
Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon
#22Title should read: 28 year old used to make millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon; because he certainly will have to live with competition and reduced margins from now on.
Not really. The company I work for has a similar setup; we bid on wholesale lots from the same places that Big Lots and other wholesale-to-retail outfits buy from. We flip those items both in our storefront and on eBay and Amazon. We don't do FBA but that's because we have a huge warehouse and competent shipping staff at our disposal. We clear enough for 10 competitive salaries and a comfortable income for the owners, and the rest is reinvested into the company.
The company has been around for nearly 20 years (I've been with them off and on for seven of those years), and was one of the earliest online closeouts retailers back in the 90s. This is nothing new.
Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
I will occasionally search Amazon for things whose prices I know, like Trader Joe's items or something I bought at a local store. Sometimes Amazon sells it themselves, in which case the prices are reasonable. But often, somebody random will be selling it at a large markup. My theory is that plenty of people are not particularly price sensitive and just want the thing to appear. I'm stubborn enough (or cheap enough) t…
I have a similar feeling when I look at houses to buy online. If I see the house was bought for 40%+ less just a few years ago, I refuse to give an offer. Even if the price seemed reasonable and it interests me. I refuse to reward people who bought low and want to flip it for much higher (if it increased reasonably, fine)
Certainly those increases in price are because the person put significant time and money into improving the property. It's not any more of a "reward" than your salary is "reward".
Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon
#24Nice to know that 28 is still considered a noteworthy age for things like this. It must be getting pretty close to the cutoff though. You don't often hear titles like "32 year old creates successful business"
Maybe the older ones keep their ideas to themselves?
Haha yes, that could also be true. It doesn't seem like a great idea to share your formula and encourage lots of other people to start doing it.
Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon
#25Good for him, but I really wish for a better class of business journalism. He's been doing this 4 years, and never made more than $150k/year. So he definitely isn't somebody who "makes millions".
I agree. The article is intentionally vague. Millions of dollars in revenue is relatively easy vs. millions in net profit.
That said, presumably the value of the entity could be a multiple of the revenue. Either way the article fails to shed enough light on it.
Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon
#26Good for him, but I really wish for a better class of business journalism. He's been doing this 4 years, and never made more than $150k/year. So he definitely isn't somebody who "makes millions".
You're confusing the salary he pays himself with the success of the business.
There's this: "Grant says the business is on track to top $8 million in total sales by the end of this year"
But, the actual net margin is unclear. At least $150k, since he paid himself that. But it's not clear that it's millions.
Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon
#27I'm wondering if he's working with Gary V? The other day a friend shared one of his "hustle" videos on Social Media where Gary is hawking this and I'm wondering if it was actually "embedded marketing" for this guy.
Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon
#28I am surprised that there is so much margin. Is this because: 1. Amazon product delivery is so convenient that users don't mind paying little extra or 2. Walmart discounts products valuing their warehouse space more. Thus not realizing there was demand for the product elsewhere or at a different time. Seems like it would be simple for Walmart to figure out this arbitrage and shelve products for longer time. Any thoug…
Or they just dont care. Walmart sets a price to move X amount of merchandise. This guy sells to a small fraction in comparison. Lets say 1% (as an example).
If Walmart increases the price, they could easily lose more than 1% of their other customers by attempting to capture this guys profits.
Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon
#29Very hard to believe, you'd have to be very naive to reveal your arbitrage like this.
It seems he is already moving on by entering the self help/motivational speaker industry. > As his business is increasingly run by his team, Grant has reduced his salary down to $60,000 a year and now dedicates much of his time to getting that message out. He consults and teaches e-commerce classes through the same blog he has been using to track his performance.
In other words, his business isn't working out very well and he has a lot of inventory risk. So he's "pivoting" to self-help.
Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
I will occasionally search Amazon for things whose prices I know, like Trader Joe's items or something I bought at a local store. Sometimes Amazon sells it themselves, in which case the prices are reasonable. But often, somebody random will be selling it at a large markup. My theory is that plenty of people are not particularly price sensitive and just want the thing to appear. I'm stubborn enough (or cheap enough) t…
I have a similar feeling when I look at houses to buy online. If I see the house was bought for 40%+ less just a few years ago, I refuse to give an offer. Even if the price seemed reasonable and it interests me. I refuse to reward people who bought low and want to flip it for much higher (if it increased reasonably, fine)
I have been looking at houses as well, and I do this too. My main reasoning though is that there is generally a lot less value left to capture in these houses because as the house trades hands, most of the 'low hanging' remodels/improvements get picked. And of course the other risk, is that there is some 'hidden' issue that is driving the turnover (noisy neighbors, under a common airplane flight path, or something like that).