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28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon

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Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon

#111

Post by usrusr »

wpietri wrote: post #6
thecollate wrote: post #3

I 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…

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…

Amazon spent decades of building the brand of "if it's on Amazon it must be a good deal" and now Amazon marketplace allows third party sellers to exploit that image to the occasional buyer who does not really understand what Amazon marketplace is.

Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon

#112

Post by kennethologist »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #94
dsacco wrote: post #92

This is cool. It reminds me of another three person team I’m familiar with that works on Amazon Prime arbitrage full time. They have a warehouse and an employee responsible for overseeing shipments in and shipments out. The entire business revolves around algorithmically identifying non-Prime merchandise that is undersold because it lacks the Prime label, purchasing the inventory, then reselling it under the Prime la…

How do they identify those products?

Most likely using Amazon Product Advertising API http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/latest/DG/CHA...

Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon

#113

Post by goodJobWalrus »

FuckOffNeemo wrote: post #100
mr337 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in US people are doing that with IKEA. The closest IKEA is about 2.5 hours way and you can put in a order through them and they make a weekly trip to buy your item and you can pickup it up locally.

Ah, thank you for the comment. I'm guessing IKEA don't ship any where in that case and that isn't specific to just Australia. Paying some one else for the luxury and buying it through an online medium like eBay is a pretty decent alternative to a 2.5 hour drive.

It delivers in Canada. Both small items by post, and large items (furniture) for $100 flat.

Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon

#114

Post by nickonline »

FuckOffNeemo wrote: post #100
mr337 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in US people are doing that with IKEA. The closest IKEA is about 2.5 hours way and you can put in a order through them and they make a weekly trip to buy your item and you can pickup it up locally.

Ah, thank you for the comment. I'm guessing IKEA don't ship any where in that case and that isn't specific to just Australia. Paying some one else for the luxury and buying it through an online medium like eBay is a pretty decent alternative to a 2.5 hour drive.

Ikea has started delivery in Australia as well.

http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_AU/customer_service/ikea_services/...

Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon

#115

Post by wolco »

AznHisoka wrote: post #102
lsaferite wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, either they put in a bunch of work to make the house more attractive or the overall market price rose 40%. In either case you just want to exclude the house because you don't want someone to make a profit?

I am ok with someone making a profit but not a 40% in a few years. Yes that is probably irrational "caveman" thinking. Never said it was logical.

Better to find the cheapest house that fits your want list regardless of past ownership.

The house I bought doubled for the last owner during his 6 years here. It doubled for me in half of the time since. The past owner wasn't greedy the market moved on its own.

Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon

#116

Post by flashman »

richardpetersen wrote: post #88

Is it possible this is just a bit of PR spin by Wallmart to position themselves as being cheaper than Amazon or have I been working in marketing for too long?

I read this article as a PR placement by Amazon. Amazon finds the guy (because they have the data on his sales) and connects him to the journalist, because Amazon wants to grow its Seller marketplace in the face of competition from Ebay and Alibaba/Taobao.

Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon

#117

Post by sliverstorm »

Mz wrote: post #108
sliverstorm wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do it for free, perhaps

I am trying to do exactly that. One establishment would not post the flyer "because it might be a pyramid scheme." So simply being free seems insufficient. But, thank you.

Well and of course free sometimes begs "so what's the catch"

In which case very cheap sometimes works. Like, "I'm not looking to make money but help me cover gas and venue rental"

Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon

#118

Post by zaroth »

rubyfan wrote: post #80
wpietri wrote: post #8

Good 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".

His high salary was $150k. You can still make millions without taking it out in the form of a salary. If he owns the company and the value of his equity increases into the millions, then he’s making millions. It sounded like he was reinvesting the money back into the business too. It’s probably a smarter use of profits if he has predictable margins that scale.

No recurring revenue, no actual customers, no secret sauce. Maybe some proprietary data models, but doesn't really sound like it.

So what would it be that someone was hypothetically paying for if they were to buy him out?

The blog following and sales classes probably are the key IP worth paying for.

Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon

#119

Post by Mz »

sliverstorm wrote: post #117
Mz wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am trying to do exactly that. One establishment would not post the flyer "because it might be a pyramid scheme." So simply being free seems insufficient. But, thank you.

Well and of course free sometimes begs "so what's the catch" In which case very cheap sometimes works. Like, "I'm not looking to make money but help me cover gas and venue rental"

Not in this case. I live in a town with a high unemployment rate and lots of homeless. I am newly off the street and would like to help people in dire straights. They don't have money to spare.

Re: 28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon

#120

Post by rmason »

Gary Vaynerchuk has demonstrated doing the same thing. But his sources are garage sales and dollar stores. He carries apps for EBay and Amazon on his phone so he can easily see whether the margin is worth his effort. He aims his advice at kids who can easily pick up $1-2K a month.
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