28-year-old makes millions buying from Walmart, selling on Amazon • Hacker News Board

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

#201

Post by notyourday » Mon, Nov 06, 2017, 7:48 PM UTC

wpietri wrote: post #200

notyourday wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The level of hate towards someone who is successfully working for himself, making $150k a year, no being beholden to meetings, stand-ups, managers that don't understand how special the posters are while shaking as a leafs in November being afraid that they won't be able to afford the next rent increase in Silly Valley or that as they turn forty is just amazing.

Huh. Not sure who you're talking to, but I opened with "good for him", and I meant it.

It was directed at the general posture of comments disassembling and not believing his business model, saying that he cannot be as good as Walmart at predicting demand and hence should go out of business, etc.

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

#202

Post by will_hughes » Mon, Nov 06, 2017, 11:11 PM UTC

nickonline wrote: post #114

FuckOffNeemo wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/...

Their home delivery option still requires you to go in store, take the item(s) you want off the shelves, pay for it, take it over to the delivery counter and then negotiate with them on delivery availability.

You can't do it online or over the phone, and even in-store they won't tell you availability of slots or reserve you a slot while you go pick up the stuff.

Their customer service in this aspect is dreadful.

It's only marginally better than when they partnered with a local delivery company (Kings, at the Rhodes store) who were even worse - not delivering on the day I'd paid (extra) for, and then having the nerve to try and charge me for storage when I said they'd have to deliver it the next weekend.

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

#203

Post by morganvachon » Tue, Nov 07, 2017, 12:53 AM UTC

bob_theslob646 wrote: post #133

morganvachon wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Lol, good luck is all I have to say to you. Invest well=) If you honestly think this is sustainable, you are mistaken. You are lucky to have done well all these years, but as more people get smarter, bye bye margins.( Same thing in every business.) More and more people will get into this space. Sure, you may be able to survive because you geta volume discount on shipping, but that's all dependent on you sourcing the…

People buying random clearance items from Walmart to sell on Amazon has zero impact on our business. We buy wholesale lots for thousands of dollars at a time, stock them in a huge warehouse, and employ a team of workers to sort, evaluate, list, and ship the items. A single person working from their basement can't even touch that.

It's been sustainable for the nearly 20 years the owners have been doing it, and the rise of Amazon and eBay has caused an explosion of growth over the majority of that time.

As for myself, my role there is multifaceted (mainly IT and website management, and helping out everywhere else as needed). I'm paid better than I was in government work, and I'm enjoying it a lot more.