Ebay to Amazon ARBITRAGE GUIDE

BITRAGE GUID AR E

Simon Charlton Table Of Contents

Introduction...... page 3 Chapter 1: Why Use Ebay...... page 6 Chapter 2: How to find the good stuff on Ebay...... page 21 Chapter 3: Consumables!...... page 35 Chapter 4: Leveraging ebay sellers...... page 39 Frequently asked questions...... page 41 Resources...... page 47

DISCLAIMER AND/OR LEGAL NOTICES: The information presented in this book represents the views of the publisher as of the date of publication. The publisher reserves the rights to alter and update their opinions based on new conditions. This book is for informational and educational purposes only. The author and the publisher do not accept any responsibilities for any liabilities resulting from the use of this information. While every attempt has been made to verify the information provided here, the author and the publisher cannot assume any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions. Any similarities with people or facts are unintentional. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage or retrieval system without expressed written, dated and signed permission from the publisher. This is NOT a get rich scheme. It is a real business model that requires work and effort. 2

THE Ebay to Amazon ARBITRAGE GUIDE

Hello fellow entrepreneurs!

I'm Simon Charlton from the UK, and, I have been making money online for around 15 years. I have been selling on eBay for all of that time, and, amazon as well for the past 8 years.

To start with, I have to tell you that this is not a complete guide to selling on amazon.

No, for that I would recommend the PAC (Proven Amazon Course) from Jim Cockrum. (Link is found at end of this book)

This training course has a wealth of relevant information that can literally take you from 'zero to hero' very quickly in terms of making a good living selling on amazon.

I, too, have benefitted enormously from the PAC and have added many incredible techniques and strategies to my amazon business. It is a brilliant resource that I believe every serious amazon seller should have.

This guide I have written is based on my experiences over several years, with tried and tested techniques for finding what all amazon sellers need...... INVENTORY!

This guide will show to you that you need to be using the largest online yard sale/swap meet/boot sale in the world to source your

3 stock, to find wholesalers and stockists, and, how to find the deals that no one else does.

I will show you how I source my stock, and how I have built virtually my whole amazon business from the number one resource in my online business...... EBAY!

Before we go on, I will assume that you have an account on both eBay and amazon, and, are at least a little computer literate and can type on a keyboard, even if it's with one finger!

I realise that many folks starting on the journey of building an amazon business from scratch feel quite daunted at first. You want to have your own online business, and may have toyed a little with ebay or amazon.

You may have already scoured your home looking for stuff to sell, and this may have all been sold.

You may still have a job and find you have little time to do retail arbitrage, research private label, wholesale deals, liquidation, etc.

And, you may have a small amount of cash to invest in stock. You want this business so bad! But, are weighed down with self-doubt and wonder where to start. There seems to be no end of places to buy stock. Too much choice and not enough knowledge on where to choose the right stock.

I get all this, as I was the same not that long ago. Please be assured, though, that as you read through this guide, your eyes will be opened to the huge amount of excellent stock just waiting to be purchased from ebay and re-sold on amazon. This is not pie-in-the- sky nonsense either.

The techniques I'll explain work, because I use them every single day in my business.

I am excited to share with you all what I have done to build my business from tiny beginnings, with hardly any money, and very little knowledge.

But, what I did have was an eagerness to make it work, and you'll need this too.

Read on with me, and we'll go through some great strategies to leverage the profitable items on eBay into your amazon business.

CHAPTER 1 Why Use Ebay?

Over the years I have talked with many amazon third party sellers like myself. Some have complained that they struggle to find stock to sell.

"Are you using eBay to source stock for re-sale?" I always ask.

"No" is usually the answer.

Now, this is often because many folks are looking to buy wholesale, or, are doing other retail and online arbitrage, thinking this is only where the deals are to be made, or are working hard on their Private label products. These methods do all work. But, to leave out eBay as a prime source of stock, is just leaving money on the table, and ignoring a wonderful source of new and used products that sell very well on amazon.

Why you should be using eBay as a source of inventory:

• Firstly, products often sell on ebay at way below what they sell for on amazon • You can find a constant supply of profitable goods to sell, both new and used • You can find some great suppliers that will sell to you again and again • You can develop relationships with some eBay sellers that can lead to more opportunities. (More about that later)

We'll see how to do all this as we progress through this guide.

To be clear, though, this is not a guide on using ebay as a drop shipper. Some have done this, but, amazon has some tight rules on dropshipping. It's really only recommended to drop ship to amazon customers using well established and reliable companies.

Now, some people have said to me that by sharing my techniques and secrets I may undermine my own business. To that, I say this: I won't give you the exact items I buy from eBay for re-sale on amazon, otherwise that would be giving my business away hook, line and sinker!

But, I will give away the exact methods I use to find profitable items. I firmly believe that I have only scratched the surface with the eBay- amazon business model. Its potential is huge as far as buying stock for re-sale. And, I believe eBay is big enough for everyone to get in on these amazing ways to buy great stock for your amazon business.

Just to show the sort of things I am talking about, here are some recent examples of purchases I made on eBay, which, for privacy reasons, order numbers, addresses and dates have been removed.

The first item is a mosquito net, a very random item, but, brand new and unused. I bought it for £5, around $8.

I shipped it quickly into amazon, and it sold within 2 months. Here's the amazon order below showing the selling price of £27, approx $35:

And, again, I recently made a local purchase of an LG surround sound system for £79, around $100.

I collected it, sent it into amazon, and it sold the same day it arrived at the fulfilment centre. See the sale price below? £188, around $250.

And, lastly, I purchased a computer monitor for only £5.50 about $9.

I sent it into amazon's fulfilment centre where it sold within a couple of weeks for £79.99, around $110.

These are only three of the purchases I made very recently. I have made, and, make many like this all the time. I hope this has piqued your interest further to read on and see how to make purchases like this and then convert those eBay purchases into sales on amazon.

The Beginning

So, just to enlighten everyone on how I started with eBay, then progressed to amazon as my main selling platform and, why...... Let's start at the very beginning.

In the year 2000 when I first discovered eBay, I, like many others sat wondering what I could sell.

I scoured the house looking for items. At that time I didn't even have a digital camera. I hardly knew what I was doing, but, was sure going to have a go.

I remember I listed about 10 VHS video cassettes of well known movies.

The auctions ran for 7 days.

The response stunned me. I remember to this day checking my sales and seeing "Mr Holland's Opus" on VHS selling for £26, around US $40.

And, this wasn't a rarity either, as stuff I was considering giving away was actually making good money.

I realised this was potentially a big money maker. I needed to find more stock, and, see if I could replicate my recent sales.

I began going to local charity and thrift stores, picking up books, videos, CDs, clothes, and so on. All this process entailed much trial

10 and error; I was just looking for stock I was guessing at would make money.

I made some errors, though. I thought that buying big flashy, glossy coffee table books would sell really well, but, in most cases, they didn't.

I thought that if a CD or video was in pristine condition then they would sell well. Not necessarily.

And brand new clothes with tags on, well come on! Surely they'd sell in a shot! Again, not always.

I lost some money. I remember having boxes of stuff that didn't sell at all. Don't get me wrong, I was still selling loads of second hand stuff, and, I had caught the eBay bug good and proper! But, still I hadn't quite cracked it when it came to buying the right stock for re- sale.

I started to examine what was selling on eBay. Bear in mind, back then 15 years ago, the eBay platform was very basic. There was no buy it now function, only auctions.

The search function was as basic as it could be, and we hardly had any tools for discovering what products were popular sellers and what weren't.

A lot of it was guesswork, and, involved manually scanning the listings to see what people were bidding on.

Gradually, I started to realise what products were good sellers, and, for the most part this still applies today:

Books:

FICTION-Brand new current fiction, new releases, special editions 11

HOW TO GUIDES-Crafts, DIY, wood sculpture, paper folding, etc

CAR AND BIKE MANUALS-generally manuals for cars no more than about 10 years old, unless they are for classic cult cars, like the British Mini, the VW Campervan and Beetle, and so on, you get the picture.

WEIRD AND UNUSUAL-the weirder the better!

ACADEMIC BOOKS-new and even old sometimes make good money.

SPECIALIST-Anything that is a specialist subject

These are the general rules to buying books for re-sale, and it applies to selling today on eBay and amazon.

As far as books are concerned most fiction that has a print run of hundreds of thousands are not worth anything.

Of course, first editions can be.

But, I generally have stayed away from mass produced fiction and concentrated on the book categories above. Clothing:

With clothing, people are very brand conscious. New and lightly used designer wear can make very good money. The emphasis is on very well recognised brands, not, basic value brands found on the high street, even if they are new with tags.

The brand name is everything! Media

Media items such as film, music and software all tend to follow the same basic standards as shown above for books; weird, unusual, how to guides, classic movies, brand new releases, etc.

Collectibles and antiques

EBay is ideal for collectibles and antiques, because they vary so much in condition and characteristics. You can put multiple photos on eBay of these items, and buyers will tend to look for collectibles on eBay rather than amazon.

Anyway, for several years I continued sourcing second hand items to sell on eBay. I made many thousands of sales, and took thousands of £'s.

In about 2006 I decided to try amazon as well.

Amazon's marketplace differs to eBay in some fundamental ways.

EBay customers are generally happy to take their time surfing the hundreds of pages looking for bargains. They may purchase a "buy-it- now product", but, many prefer to search for that amazing bargain, biding their time, watching, waiting, and bidding on it at the last minute before the auction ends. That's great, but, it all takes time.

Amazon customers are different. They are generally more affluent, they also know what they want to buy, and, in many cases, they want it tomorrow. They are also willing to pay a higher price for this privilege.

Amazon customers are a loyal breed also, with a reputed 40 million Prime customers. Prime customers pay a yearly fee to amazon which entitles them to, among other things, free next day delivery on many Prime listed products on their site.

As third party sellers on amazon, we can choose to sell as MF which means Merchant Fulfilled. This means we dispatch the orders out to the customers.

Or, we can do FBA-Fulfilled by Amazon. This means we send in our inventory to amazon's warehouses, they stock it for us, and when a 13 customer buys our product, amazon will pack it and send it to the customer.

FBA items are listed as "Prime", meaning that all those loyal Prime customers will much rather buy your product from you, than the mostly non-prime sellers. Plus, Prime products usually sell for higher as well, meaning more profit for you. In my experience, selling on amazon using the FBA way is by far the best way. The PAC course goes into a lot more detail on how to work the FBA system.

So, I started on amazon as I did on eBay, just trying out books, media items, home wares. I did merchant fulfilment for several years before I decided to sell 95% of all my stock as FBA.

When I started on amazon, I moved my entire book inventory off of eBay and over to amazon. I found I could comfortably raise my prices in line with what was already being asked on each book listing. I took advantage of the generally excellent listings already on amazon with book title, upc/ibsn numbers and book descriptions. Listing on amazon is so much quicker than listing on eBay, especially when you can piggy-back off an already existing listing.

Clothing is a bit trickier on amazon; there are restrictions to this gated category. You need permission to sell new clothes on amazon, and it's not the easiest place to start selling, as clothes need to be new, with all labels intact, and, no seconds.

Plus, if you need to create your own listing for an item, you at least want to be able to sell many of this item, and replenish when stocks are low. You may have found already, that creating a brand new listing page on amazon is time consuming, more so than eBay. So, generally speaking, selling rare, one-off items on amazon can take much time, as you have to create a new listing for each one.

So, when I started selling on amazon, I kept my clothing inventory on eBay.

I began selling a reasonable amount of stock on amazon in the categories I mentioned above. I had another job, so didn't really push this side line business like I should have done. I really coasted along, picking up what I could from thrift stores, car boot sales (swap meets in the USA!), etc.

My life changed overnight

And not in a good way. I had a life changing situation at the end of 2011. My health deteriorated rapidly. I had a medical condition for 20 years that suddenly got much worse. I had a physical job that now became impossible to do, and, I found the little I was selling on eBay and amazon was hardly enough to support my family. And, my wife was expecting child number 3 in a few months.

To say I felt stressed was the understatement of the year. To feel your health slipping away, and having a young family and home to support, and, no money was one of the biggest worries. I did what many of you have done already before finding Jim Cockrum and his team.

I bought into many online courses and money making schemes. Like many of you reading now, I spent thousands trying to make an online business, buying the next big thing, tools, web space, training courses. I sat through webinar after interminable webinar, bought many "bright shiny objects" from the slick internet marketers. And, guess what? I made a grand total of zero money, after months and months of this frustrating journey. So, I was sick, broke and frustrated like you wouldn't believe.

All this time, I kept coming across Jim's name online, and I enjoyed what I read about him and his training course, but, I still wasn't ready to jump in and purchase anything from him. I kept seeing the PAC course mentioned online, and it peaked my interest. Mainly because I was already selling on amazon, and, I decided that I would, at some point, purchase the PAC. In retrospect I should have purchased immediately, but, I didn't. Still, it got me thinking back around to the whole idea of building a proper business on amazon.

I started to look at buying more stock for my small amazon business.

I was selling a handful of books, and media items, but, that was about it.

But, other categories had to have possibilities. Categories such as consumer electronics, home and garden, and health and beauty products. I made it my aim to thoroughly investigate the possibilities of selling in these categories, and to find stock for them.

I didn't have any electronics to sell, no TVs, radios, DVD players, computer monitors, laptops, or home appliances. I felt daunted, but, had a hunger. You know what I'm talking about, right? That hunger that entrepreneurial people have. The silent urge that drives you on and on, despite disappointment and dead ends. The urgency to succeed that you feel in your bones. I was determined to find a way.

Where was suitable stock to be found? I started researching.

I surfed online for wholesalers and liquidation companies, and I found hundreds!

But, when I looked at the inventory on these websites, most of it was terrible! Old, boring, out of date and overpriced, with no profit to be made even if I could sell it. All the good stock had gone, leaving only poor quality merchandise for me.

Many of the wholesalers were actually middlemen posing as wholesalers, who would charge a fee to sign up to their website, while actually the products they offered had no profit to be made. Again, a dead end.

I also looked on eBay in the wholesale sections. Again, I found tens of thousands of listings which I laboriously trawled through looking for a winner. Mostly it was the same story. Very few genuinely good lots of stock that were suitable for re-sale. I did make a few purchases from this category, but, was overwhelmed by the thousands of listings, poor photos on most of them, and the fear that if I shelled out many hundreds or even thousands on a joblot, I might be stuck with poor quality stock that I couldn't sell.

Anything that was worth buying was usually snapped up quickly, leaving slim pickings for me. There seemed to be very few genuine wholesalers out there. Most were these middle men trying to shift other wholesales deals, or, retailers who had sold all the best stock they had and now were listing their cast-offs on eBay to be bought by eager, desperate buyers.

Now, good wholesalers are out there for sure, and the PAC course details how to find them, and, how to build relationships with genuine wholesalers. The PAC course covers so many great ways to source; locally, from China, closeouts, liquidators, and, so on. These are great ways to buy in good quality inventory. And done the correct way, it can be very profitable.

But, as mentioned above, I hadn't bought the PAC course, and knew nothing about the amazing training inside. I just needed to buy stock that was relatively easy to find and didn't involve a large outlay of cash.

I found a way by accident.

I was actually looking for a particular type of camera for myself. I searched amazon, and then eBay and was shocked to find the very same camera selling for roughly 30-40% of what it was selling on amazon. I decided to buy several of these cameras on eBay and re- sell them on amazon. To my utter amazement, they sold within a week or two on amazon.co.uk.

I wondered if it would work on other electronics and cameras.

I started playing around with the search function on eBay.

I realised that the best stock to look for, as a general rule, is new, auction items, from private sellers. Often folks will receive stuff as a gift that is unwanted, and they'd rather have the cash. Then, there is "buyer remorse", where many impulse buys end up on eBay, as brand new, boxed and unused. Often times, these sellers don't list the product correctly, and set a starting price of 99p/99c. In many cases their auctions won't make many bids, and this means you can buy very profitable items for a low price.

Some lightly used items, such as electronics can still be a good purchase as we'll see a bit later on.

Although some great deals are to be had in the Buy-it-now section, the best deals, in my opinion, are found on Auction. Also, many sellers will specify 'Local Pick-up only', as their item is large, or, they just don't want to be bothered taking it to the post office.

This can be a good thing because many local sellers will list large and heavy items such as TVs, printers, monitors, garden equipment, and, so on, and specify 'Local Pick-up only'. This narrows the market right down to only local buyers, giving you the chance to get a cracking bargain.

Also, larger items may be listed with a high shipping cost, but, as you are local, you may be able to collect from the seller's home address 18 saving yourself $20-30 in shipping costs. Always check with seller first that they allow collection.

If you have several local purchases to collect, you can collect all in an hour or two and perhaps save yourself $30-50 in shipping costs.

And when you are starting out on an eBay/amazon business, this can mean a big saving.

This has happened for me many, many times over.

What sort of items are we talking about?

Cameras bought for $5, sold for $100; Printers and Fax machines bought for $10 and sold for $70.

TVs bought for $100 and sold for $200.

Home appliances bought for $200 sold for $500.

Health and beauty appliances bought for $1-50 and sold for $50-250.

I have done this, and, still do this all the time!

You can get in on this, often buying for a very low price, and saving on shipping fees. As mentioned before, it does mean that you will have to get in your car and go out to collect your auction wins, but, if the profit margin is very good, you won't mind that one bit. And, if you have a few pickups to make, they can be done quickly and efficiently.

I love these auctions! I can't tell you how many new and boxed products I have bought for 99c/99p, or just over, that are in my locality, say within 5-10 miles of my home, that I collect and then immediately put on amazon for sometimes 10-20 times the cost. Now, a profit margin like that is virtually unheard of in wholesale!

But, "what sort of stuff should I look for and how do I use the search functions?" is a question people have asked me many times before. I think the sheer volume of stuff on eBay, and, the somewhat complicated search functions can seem overwhelming and many give up searching.

Let's be clear, you know the saying "You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find the handsome prince"? Well that applies when searching for items to buy on eBay. In the main, 95% of the stuff is unsuitable, and this can dissuade many from continuing the search.

But, that's ok, as we can quickly work out a system that screens out all the unwanted items, and leaves the good stuff for us to bid on.

Read on for instructions on how to find those great products suitable for re-sale on amazon.

CHAPTER 2 How to find the good stuff on eBay

When you start researching good products to buy, you will need to have an eBay and an amazon page open on your browser so you can compare prices of potentially good products to buy on eBay. Jungle Scout and CamelCamelCamel are also good sites to use as well.

Jungle Scout will show you how many of an item are selling by just copying and pasting the amazon ranking number into the search box.

CamelCamelCamel will show you the average selling prices and pattern of sales for a particular item you are interested in buying. This will help you to decide how much to bid for a product on eBay.

So, having these four pages open on your browser will be helpful so as to conduct swift searches when about to bid and buy on eBay.

Remember, in the main, we are looking for profitable items to buy, and this means...... WELL KNOWN BRANDS! Although some unbranded items may be cheap or cool, they lack a name that can be trusted, and, as such, can be not so attractive to buyers. Also, generic items from China need to be left out of any search we perform as well. That's not to say that these items wouldn't offer possibilities for re-sale, they may well do, especially if looking for an item to do private label.

But, for now, we are looking for branded items, from all categories that can be sold quickly for a good profit on amazon.

The brand is everything. Popular brands such as Sony, Samsung, Toshiba, Philips, Panasonic, Apple, Remington and, so on, are

21 examples of brands that have a lot of new items regularly listed on auction.

This is important: Whatever category you are searching, concentrate on the brand leaders of that particular category. Now, on some amazon platforms in different countries, certain brands are restricted in part, or, in whole. These are often premium brands and brands that are well known for being faked. But, I have noticed that it can differ on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com. So, before purchasing an item from eBay that may be suspect, you can try to create a listing with it on amazon. If it shows as restricted, then you know immediately that this item is not worth buying. Another way to see what categories you have clearance to sell in is to go to your Seller Central page on amazon. On the Inventory tab at top left, click on drop down menu and Add a Product. On that page just under the large letters Add a Product you'll see Selling Application Status. This will show the categories you are already approved to sell in. Of course, certain products within that category may still be out of bounds as already said. You'll need to check these out first. But, it's the same as when doing other online or in store retail arbitrage; these things need to be checked on first before making the purchase.

So, there are many different ways to search, and I use several methods. I will show you exactly how I use the search function to find the winners.

First though, what categories should we be looking in? All of them!

Buy local, and sell to the world.

The first search I do every day is looking for local items. As shown in the previous chapter, local eBay purchases can be great for so many reasons: Auctions ending at a low price, "local pickup only" listings,

22 heavy and valuable items with high shipping cost that you can avoid if you collect.

Great bargains can still be had in the Buy-it-Now's, although, you'll find most of these listings are from business sellers, and, may not be the bargains you are looking for. By all means take a look through these as well, but, only after you have sought the 'lowest hanging fruit' first, namely the listings on auction.

Now you can do a search by brand, or, just search each category on its own to see what it turns up locally. This is what I do. Leave the search bar empty, just click on the drop down menu on the right into each category, and, narrow the search function down to this: Auction>Time newly listed>

Then down on left hand side:

Condition:New>Within 5 miles of my post/zip code, or as far as you wish to travel to collect

Whenever an item catches your eye, quickly copy and paste the name of the product, go over to the amazon page you have open and paste it into the search bar and see what it turns up. If the product is selling for $200 on amazon, and ranks well, you might want to bid up to $40-50, maybe a little more. Factor in whether you are permitted to collect the item, if in doubt, message the seller and ask before bidding. Use Jungle Scout and CCC if you need more of an idea of this item's popularity, and its actual selling price history.

Remember, because something is listed as $1000, does not mean it sells for that! Check on CamelCamelCamel.com for a detailed graph on recent prices for this particular item, and then decide if a profit can be made by purchasing this item you have an interest in.

When looking on amazon for the product you are considering bidding on, check ranking, reviews and prices. Are there any FBA sellers on this item?

What items should we be looking for? As said before, major brands are best. If it's listed as "new" then I make sure it is new, and the retail packaging is intact. Some sellers will state new, when in fact, the item may be lightly used and returned to box. If in doubt, drop the seller a message through eBay to clarify.

Now, you can search for used items as well, and certain items will turn a good profit on amazon even if they are second hand. I tend to concentrate on new, though, as these are quite plentiful and offer the chance of a high profit on amazon when I come to re-sell them.

One category I like very much is "Business and Industrial" ("Business, Office and Industrial" in the UK eBay). On this category you'll find many local businesses, some of whom are liquidating, closing down, or, just have a surplus in stock and consumables such as office and computer equipment, ink and toner, stationery and even cafeteria groceries such as coffee and tea, all for the taking.

These are often superb opportunities to buy amazing stock at a low price. Also, you can message these sellers and ask to view stock first before bidding. Most sellers will agree, and then you have a prime opportunity to get in first and snap up a large quantity of very profitable inventory.

I leave my business card with larger eBay sellers, and tell them that I am always interested in buying large amounts of stock. Again, this has enabled me to be able to create relationships with valuable contacts who can supply me over and over again. These contacts are very valuable to your business.

When I buy locally and collect from smaller private sellers, I still always ask the seller if they have any more stock they wish to sell privately. This has enabled me to buy lots more than I had originally planned to, and, again works very well in building up my inventory to sell on amazon.

Are you starting to realise the potential there is in eBay for purchasing massive amounts of great stock for re-sale on amazon? There's more!

The "Computers/Tablets and Networking" ("Computers/Tablets and Networking" in the UK eBay) category is also a good one and can turn up many great new products locally. This includes monitors, computer peripherals (more about that later), hardware, and so on.

"Health and Beauty" has many subcategories as well and regularly turns up great buys for me. One of the sub-categories is 'Mobility and Disabled'. In this you will often find walking and bathing aids, and a whole host of products that make life easier for older folks and the less-abled. These are often purchased in great quantities by people, and then sold when situations change. You can purchase much great stock for pennies on the dollar in this category.

Really explore this category as I promise you will find some great stock here. This category can turn up some very expensive equipment that you'll be able to turn into a great profit. There is a whole world of products designed and produced for elderly folks and those less-abled. Many of these are bought in large quantities, the buyer realises they aren't suitable for one reason or another, and, so they end up on eBay. There are literally thousands of products, adaptations, special seats, steps, handles, hoists, grips, bathroom aids, kitchen aids, and so on. I have done well on this category, and you can do too.

One of my favourite categories that I search more than any other is "Home and Garden" ("Home, Furniture and DIY" and "Garden and Patio" on the UK eBay)

In this category are many sub-categories that will turn up a treasure trove of wonderful stuff to sell. If you look in 'Appliances' you'll often find vacuum cleaners, bread makers, kettles, coffee makers, and so on. Again, many of these sellers will shy away from shipping these items so will specify 'collection only', which narrows the market right down to a handful of local folk bidding.

Another sub-category is "DIY tools" and "DIY Materials". Here you'll find a whole host of unused products, often surplus from home DIY projects. You know how expensive DIY products are these days. You can buy such things as Velux windows, Delonghi radiators and high end towel rails, boilers, plumbing equipment, heating and air conditioning peripherals. If this is outside of your comfort zone, that's ok, and to start with you may not be comfortable with buying stock like this.

But, when you're ready, take a look at this, because believe me, you can turn up some serious treasure in this category. And you have no need to buy blind on this. Just research any product that catches your eye by going over to amazon, or, Google. Get a picture of the going price and then work out your profit.

I buy like this very often. Sometimes, I have no idea what a product is, or, does. All I know is that it's local on eBay, I've bought it for $5, and, it sells on amazon for $50!

In this category you will find many great items, often lawnmowers, patio heaters, pond pumps and vacs, tools, strimmers, and so on. Many times local folk have bought these items on impulse, stored them away in their garages and never used them. Great news for us!

We can buy these often at a low price and make a large profit re- selling on amazon.

I like the "Consumer Electronics" ("Sound and Vision" in UK eBay) category for buying locally, as you will find heavy TV and sound equipment often listed as "local pickup only" or with high shipping costs, both that you can avoid by collecting from the sellers address.

And, of course, buying locally from any of the "Wholesale" categories is great for several reasons. Much of the wholesale stock listed on eBay is quite simply not profitable. It contains thousands of listings with poor quality stock, out of date, customer returns, poor selections, and so on.

Many retailers and wholesalers seek to sell their cast-offs to an unsuspecting public who may be desperate to buy stock for re-sale. Plus, shipping for these often large boxes or pallets can be very high. If you bid and buy blind, and then have shipped to your address, you can find out quickly that you have made a mistake.

This isn't always the case; I have bought blind before and done very well, but nevertheless, caution needs to be exercised.

However, when buying wholesale locally, you can again view the stock and arrange your own collection which again will often save you a lot of money.

One tip to use is this: Be on the lookout for broken appliances. The reason is that many well known branded food processors, vacuums, blenders, etc, have parts that can break easily, like bowls, blades, tubing. And, these are often very expensive to purchase from manufacturers. Sometimes you'll find a well known appliance that is going for literally pennies locally, that you can purchase and strip for valuable parts. Parts like bowls, handles, buttons, switches, levers, etc. All these can be re-sold, sometimes on amazon, or, back on

27 eBay. If you come across a faulty/spares or repairs appliance on eBay, quickly check out that model number on amazon and, you may be shocked to see the potential profit you can make selling 'cannibalised' parts from broken machines.

One add-on thought to the whole 'faulty' appliance scenario: I NEVER EVER buy broken products that require hours of repairing. Unless you are an expert in your field, and really know what you are doing, then don't be tempted to buy a product with the goal of getting it back to its original glory. It won't happen. It will tie you up for hours, could be dangerous messing about with wiring and electrics, and, will give you more frustration than profit.

I am speaking from experience on this! I tried it several times some years ago, and it was a whole world of pain!

The whole idea of purchasing on eBay, is to quickly build up a profitable inventory that can be processed quickly for re-sale on amazon. New items are perfect for this, some used items are fine, and broken items ONLY if you can make a good Return on investment (ROI) selling the EASILY removed parts, or, are an expert at repairing them quickly.

Searching locally is just one strategy I use to buy good stock and it works for me very well. I buy every week this way and stock my shelves at amazon's fulfilments centres with fast moving stock.

"What profit margin should I be aiming for?" is a question I often hear. Well, you have to factor in the cost of the item, your time to travel and collect, the shipping fees to amazon, fba fees, and, taxes. These can all vary, so you'll need to crunch a few numbers before bidding.

But, it's not as daunting as it seems, because, often the profits to be made buying new, and, even used on eBay, are so high that you will be more than happy with the return on investment.

As a general guide, I nearly always want to at least double my money, and this is more than do-able on most of my purchases. This may not be true in every case; for instance, I often buy a certain electrical appliance that is in plentiful supply on eBay. I pay around $150 and sell for $275. After fees and expenses I may clear about $65 profit. Is this worth it? I figure yes, as these sell very quickly, usually within the week of them hitting the amazon shelves.

In the main, with most of my purchases on eBay I can at least double or triple my money, sometimes a lot more.

Now, with the local search, there is a limited supply of stock, obviously as the search function is only set to auction items within 5- 10 miles of your location.

Buying locally is a definite winner for so many reasons, and something I still do even now. But, would it surprise you to know that this isn't the main way I purchase on eBay?

No! I actually find other kinds of searches very rewarding and will explain these below. I also search well known brands that have loads of popular products that sell well on eBay such as Sony, Toshiba, Apple, basically all the well known brands, and brand leaders in that selling category.

You will find it time consuming looking through hundreds of thousands of "Sony" listings, such as phone cases, batteries, and, memory cards. These are not what we are looking for in the main, as the profit margin is too low.

We want to look for higher ticket items, so narrow the search down to the most profitable categories, such as "Sound and Vision", "Cameras and Photography" and "Business, Office and Industrial", as

shown below. These search terms may differ slightly depending on which eBay platform you are searching, .co.uk, .com, .fr, etc.

You may still feel a little daunted by this, and, may think you need to know about a lot about the items you are bidding on. Not so! Obviously, if you know a little about the products you are buying, it helps, but, in most cases you don't need to know about the products, other than what we discussed previously, which is: Are these selling well on amazon? What is their average selling price and ranking? And, that is it.

"But, wait!" I hear some say. "Aren't we supposed to stay away from electricals, and, anything with a plug on it, as these are open to abuse and refunds from amazon customers?"

I have heard many say this. Now, it is true, some amazon customers may abuse their privilege of returning their purchases, and use the item, abuse it even, and return it in poor condition. This does happen on the odd occasion. If you are doing FBA on amazon, many returned

30 electricals will go back into your inventory. Amazon have started what they call "furbishing" where they will spruce up returned products ready for re-sale. If amazon asks that you remove the product back to your home address, no worries, because, when that electrical item returns, you may be able to send it back to amazon as "Almost New", or, sell it on another channel, such as eBay.

These things do happen sometimes, but, the return and potential profits of selling electricals and appliances far outweigh any negatives you may find, in my experience. It certainly hasn't dissuaded me from buying electrical appliances.

Something else to remember is that you will need to cover the warranty on electricals you sell on amazon, in most case the guarantee is for 12 months. Is this a cause for concern? Well, it could be. If you buy electricals from retail or online stores, you would always keep the receipts for these products, in case you needed to get them repaired. But, if you were to buy a new, without receipt or guarantee, 55 inch TV for $1000 from a seller on eBay, and placed it on amazon for $1500, that's a nice profit. But, if it goes wrong in 11 months time, you will have to cover that repair, replacement, or refund. But, that also is a scenario that doesn't happen often. Something to keep in mind, but, don't let that put you off buying. It's happened only a few times for me in the thousands of sales I have had on amazon.

With appliances, you may need to decide how large you want to go. You may find a new and unused washer/drier in its retail packaging going for a low price on eBay. But, think first: Are you planning to collect this? Are you thinking of sending this in to amazon for FBA? Or, Merchant fulfilment? Have you factored in the costs of the shipping to amazon, or, to the customer? Can you lift this large appliance? Can you store it? You have to decide what works for you.

I tend to leave very large appliances well alone, it's not worth my time and effort buying and processing these ready for sale on amazon.

As a general rule, anything I buy has to be smaller than a microwave. I do buy large TV's on occasion as these are usually in slender boxes and can be shipped easily to Amazon's fulfilment centres.

Fridges, freezers, washing machines, ride on lawn mowers, forget it! There is generally no need to go after these items as the profit on one large heavy appliance like this can be the same as a small camera that weighs 1/20 the weight, and took 5 minutes to process and get ready for sale on amazon.

When making regular searches and purchases, you will quickly get a shortlist of good products that you will seek out to buy time and again. Remember that camera I bought all that time ago when I started all this? It is still a search I do every day, as it turns a great profit for me even now.

You can add all these searches to your "favourite searches" on your eBay and check on them each day. That way you will always have them in:

Activity>Lists>Searches You Follow

As seen above, click on "Follow this search", then it will show in the left column under Activity>Lists>Searches you follow.

As you make regular searches this way, and start making purchases, you will quickly start to get an idea of what sells really well on amazon, and you'll find yourself buying these items more and more on eBay.

Some products sell incredibly well on amazon, and I can still hardly believe it that I can purchase them for so little on eBay!

There are literally thousands of electronic products, home wares, health and beauty items out there, the scope and potential is enormous. If you follow these steps outlined, you will find products daily. I guarantee it. Because, I do myself.

Did you note at the outset, the three items I recently bought on eBay and sold for a large profit? These are not rarities either, I do this each and every day. I could provide dozens of photos of these eBay to amazon sales, but, I would be giving away my complete business. I obviously can't do that, so I am teaching you the exact way I find profitable items. You can find many products on your own that will make you good profit time and again. There are some products you will discover that you can buy time and time again, sometimes daily on eBay that will sell very well for you on amazon.

What about items that are listed as 'Local Pick-up only' that are many miles away?

This shouldn't deter you. I have a contract with a carrier service here in the UK where I can have parcels collected from my home address that go out for delivery to my customers. I also can have parcels collected from anywhere in the UK. I get a preferential business rate that is around 1/3 the cost for the public.

When I come across an auction item I really want to buy that is listed as 'Local Pick-up only', I just email the seller and ask if they would allow my courier to collect from them. In the vast majority of cases, the seller will agree to this.

And so, again I have an advantage over other buyers in that I am bidding on an item that few will be bidding on because of the 'Local Pick-up only' instruction. These little techniques will really give you an edge in sourcing all the most profitable items for sale on eBay. Now, I want to talk a little about other products that you seriously need to look at buying to place in your amazon inventory. What are they?

Chapter 3 CONSUMABLES!

We can make a good profit on high ticket items as already seen. But, these are often one-off purchases made now and again. Whereas, consumables are products that are consumed regularly.

Think of products that are consumed in large amounts and all the time. Some may say I am crazy here, but, I will tell you some of the very items I buy regularly on eBay and make good money from re- selling on amazon. You can do the same:

Ink cartridges, ink toner, incontinence pads, stationery, hair products, toothbrushes, kitchen wares, food and drink, health supplements, and, so on.

Ink and Toner: There is a huge, and I mean, huge amount of this stuff on eBay. Often folks with printers find their new printer doesn't take the old HP cartridges they already have, so they put them on eBay. The same applies with ink toner. Now, these consumables can be very costly to buy retail. So, check out the auction sales of these on eBay.

You may want to go through the Buy-it-now listing as well, although there will be hundreds of retailers selling on here, so you may not find many bargains. But, you can set the search so that it shows products up to a price of your choice. So, you could search up to a cost of, say $10 to filter out the higher costing products, leaving potentially profitable items for you.

Incontinence Pads: Don't laugh! You may need these one day! I have to tell you that I have purchased loads of these in the past. There are

35 always large amount of listings for these on eBay. These are well sought after for obvious reasons. As the packages they come in are quite heavy, you may find that buying locally is the best option to save on shipping fees. You will find these locally, if not today, then tomorrow, as they are extremely popular.

Stationery: We already looked at the business and office category, and, this is a great place to find products from businesses liquidating old stock from their premises. Look out for products that are in high demand, printers, inks, toner, pens in quantity, tape, glue, and so on. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of these available daily on eBay. You will be able to quickly sift through the listings and identify those that are profitable.

Health and Beauty: This is a gated category on amazon, so if you can get un-gated as quickly as possible this will prove to be a great category to sell in. Again, many folks have "buyer remorse" when making purchases in this arena. Why? Think: diets started with good intentions, new hair regimes, beauty regimes, etc.

Often consumers buy large amounts of a product with great intentions of starting on a new health or beauty regime, only to change their mind, or, not continue with it. Then, all those expensive products end up on eBay, ready for you to purchase.

Really explore this as it will turn up plenty of promising stuff for re- sale. Remember though, that many health consumables will have expiry dates, so you want at least 6 months on them before buying. Also, if something is listed as new, it needs to be new and sealed for hygiene reasons.

Home and Garden: In this category you will often find large amounts of dish washer tablets, cleaning products and equipment. Small kitchen appliances, cleaning gadgets and the like are often bought on a whim, or, bought as gifts and so end up listed on eBay. 36

Products that are 'of the moment', trendy appliances, and the like, these are often bought by a large populace, but, then make their way quickly onto auction when the consumers change their mind and decide not to use after all.

These can be hot sellers on amazon. Of course, always check rankings first before buying to ensure they are popular sellers.

Peripherals and spare parts

Along with consumables, also look for peripherals and spare parts. These are add-on's to things like computers, appliances and electricals. I often purchase peripherals and these sell very well on amazon. These can be very expensive to buy from the manufacturers. Things like pumps, valves, control panels, switches, handles, filters, anything that is a replacement or improvement on the original.

Often-times folks will buy a product, it breaks down, and, then they may decide to buy the replacement part. For one reason or another, that repair they meant to do never gets done, they replace the appliance and are left with a spare part. More often than not it ends up on eBay for 99p/99c.

Another scenario that you can take advantage of is this: Many tradesmen buy in materials for a job they have. They may use a partial amount, but, are left with several units over. This stock many times ends up on eBay also ready for you to swoop in and buy. As I said before, don't worry if you don't know or understand how these items work. If they are on amazon, rank quite well and are low priced on eBay, then make that decision on whether this is going to be a worthwhile purchase to put into your amazon inventory.

This is an outline of how to search for the profitable inventory on eBay. No doubt, you'll find your own little techniques as you progress, and, certainly find items that you'll keep on seeking out time and again as they are profitable for you.

So far, I've explained how to look for auction items.

There is another strategy I use, and that is sourcing from wholesalers, or, liquidators, but, not in the traditional way of trawling through the wholesale category on eBay.

There is another way that I think is mostly overlooked. Remember, we are looking to use every opportunity there is on eBay to buy in the best inventory for our amazon store. We look to buy from private individuals, but, also the many wholesalers and liquidators who list on eBay.

Chapter 4 Leveraging EBay sellers

There are many wholesalers selling on eBay. They mostly sell large job lots in the Wholesale sections. Sometimes this can really turn up some excellent stock, but, it is also a laborious search fraught with potential pitfalls. Often you are trawling through literally thousands of listings, buying blind, the auction can run into large amounts of money, and, then you have the problem of costly shipping, storage concerns, and so on.

I have found that many wholesalers and liquidators list their stock on eBay, not in large lots, but, in single listings. Some of these sellers have many hundreds of products on auction, starting at low prices. Now this is where you need to leverage all you can out of each seller.

I do this by looking, not just at the one item I am interested in bidding on, but, on everything the seller has listed. This will reveal many things.

For instance, that seller may have many more items similar to what you're interested in. If you bid on many of them and win the auctions, most times you can get combined shipping which will save you a lot of money in shipping charges.

Another good reason to look at everything a seller has listed is because you can quickly see who is a private seller, and, who is a small business, a liquidator or wholesaler. I love these kinds of sellers. I'll tell you why. Many times they list many of the same products on separate auction, usually starting bids at 99p/99c. The seller doesn't play the scarcity card either, listing just one particular

39 product, say a Sony DAB radio. They may list 10 to run at the same time. This can mean that the final sale price is going to be much lower than if they were selling just one radio at a time, because there is no scarcity on this item. Buyers can bid on any of the ten listed! I love these auctions, and often bid on all of the listings, snapping up incredible bargains.

I then will make contact with the seller and offer to buy a larger quantity of his stock. This has worked well for me many times, and, this is one of my most profitable strategies I use even now. You can get to build relationships with the sellers in this way, and make many repeated purchases from them, away from eBay as well. Many sellers like to do this as it avoids unnecessary fees for them.

I nearly always try to make my purchases using PayPal though. This is because PayPal offers buyer protection like no other bank. If the items you pay for by PayPal don't arrive, you can get your money refunded. If the goods do arrive, but, are not true to description, you can also get your money back from PayPal. It is the safest way to buy stock online, in my opinion. Building relationships with sellers

I have done this by offering my services to them with regard to selling their stock on amazon. Many liquidators and wholesalers list their items poorly on eBay and consequently do make the amount of money they should do. They may have the good contacts that allow them to buy great stock, but, many don't know the first thing about creating an effective listing. You may wish to continue buying his stock if it's making a good profit for you on amazon, but, if you find the stock not as good as it was, or, not leaving you much room for profit, offer to sell his products on amazon. Put simply, you get him set up on amazon with his own account. Then he can email you the

40 listings of his products. You then take care of the whole of his amazon business.

One retailer on eBay I bought stock from regularly actually asked me to sell his products on amazon. By using the features on amazon's Seller Central dashboard, I can log into his account and check his sales, list products, take care of customer service and generally look after the whole of his amazon business. I have never met this guy, but, we talk on the phone and by email and the arrangement works well. I have done this for a year now on a commission basis for every sale. I am aiming to do this more in the coming year using the training from Jim's ProvenProductPartnering course with Dan Hollins. This brilliant training is found within the PAC course, and, will show you how to partner up with companies and people with stock to sell. You use your amazon skills to sell their products for a commission. As I said earlier, many liquidators, wholesalers, retailers are good at what they do, but, often not at selling online. Another golden opportunity for you to use in your business.

Frequently asked questions How much should I bid on an item, and, when?

There are many schools of thought on this. Some will say you should wait until the last few seconds to bid on an item. That way, you will often snatch the auction away from other potential buyers who have only bid a small amount. If you aren't able to be on hand for every auction, you can use an auction sniper tool such as auctionraptor or bidnapper. These will make a bid for you in the final seconds of an auction. It can work out for you.

The other thought is to make your top bid now, thus guaranteeing that you win the auction for no more than the amount you have bid. The problem can be that other interested bidders may get into a bidding frenzy and bid right up to your maximum bid just to get ahead of your bid. So, you need to work out a system you are happy with.

Me? I tend to wait until final moments of an auction, then place my top bid. This seems to work well, and I more often than not win the auction. I have used auction snipers before and I didn't find them terribly reliable, sometimes they would work sometimes, and, other times miss an auction entirely. I don't think there is an exact science on how to bid on an auction, so, use what works for you.

When is it good to buy second hand items for re-sale on amazon?

You can do this anytime of course, but, I try to ensure that the products, if not new, are at least in almost new condition, and, boxed if at all possible. If you buy products with less than this, it will generally eat into any potential profits, because the selling price is going to be that much lower. You'll need to evaluate the ranking of the product and scarcity. If it's in very good used condition, is kinda scarce and ranks well, is selling at a very low price on eBay, then it may be worth a look at.

There's some risk in all of this, of course, but, some risk is good, and, necessary to break out of your comfort zone. You know, the same old way of doing things, the 'safe' way, but not very profitable way.

How much should I set aside to start doing eBay to amazon arbitrage?

How long is a piece of string? You can start with $5 if you wish. This side of your business will grow more slowly if you do start with $5, but, by duplication it will start to snowball, IF, you re-invest your profits for at least 3-6 months. If you really have to use these profits to live on, then you have no choice. But, for as long as you reasonably can, get those profits back into the business by buying new stock.

That's what I did. Now I have a large enough inventory whereby some weeks I hardly buy any new stock, but, I am still making thousands in sales a month on Amazon just from the large amount of stock I have accumulated. This is a good feeling!

When I started, spending £100-200 ($150-275) felt very risky, I was concerned I wouldn't make any money doing this. But, I did very quickly. Now, I sometimes spend up to £3,000 ($4500) in one week without any concern, because I know I will turn a good profit on that investment.

If you can invest $500-1000 or more in stock, you will really see your amazon business grow very quickly indeed. You will make some mistakes, and may make some poor purchase choices, I still do now occasionally. But, by using the strategies I have outlined in this guide, you will be making a good profit fairly quickly. I have taught exactly what I did, and, do every day to grow my amazon business.

Isn't this a time consuming exercise looking through listings every day?

Yes, it can be. But, two things to remember: Once you have your searching methods down to a fine art, you rapidly make purchasing decisions on eBay. I can spend 1 or 2 hours a day doing this and I know I will source products that will make anything from £100-500 ($150-750) profit. That is a good hourly rate. Secondly, you can outsource the searching. Once you have mastered it, teach it to a VA (virtual assistant). These can be found at Onlinejobs.ph. This is a site dedicated to hiring Filipino workers to handle your day to day business running tasks. They can do all the sourcing on eBay for you. You can give them as much responsibly as you want, even getting them to place bids, organise collections, make payment and deliveries to your address. This is another fantastic way to streamline your amazon business. You can also use a prep company to process your eBay purchases. If you are buying wholesale from eBay, this stock can be sent into the prep company just like any other stock you may buy. I tend to prefer to process my own purchases. I have them delivered to my home, I prepare them and ship them into amazon's fulfilment centres along with all the other stock I have.

Sourcing can be time consuming, but, is a necessary part of running a business in retail sales. To be able to do it from home, though, is a blessing that many folks don't realise is even possible. I get a buzz even now when I find yet another incredible deal on eBay. And another buzz when two weeks later, that item has landed at amazon's fulfilment centre and sold for 3 times what I paid for it! I do this every day, I can't stress this enough. Retail arbitrage is great, I do this as well, but, doing that I have never even come close to the amount of profit I make from my "eBay to amazon arbitrage" model. I tend to favour eBay first and foremost as the number one online

44 arbitrage source. Using these strategies I also make searches on other local selling sites.

Craigslist is a popular site in the USA, and will turn up some great stock for you to buy. Gumtree is very popular in the UK, owned by eBay, it differs in that you can list for free with no selling fees whatsoever. But, you have to collect these purchases from the sellers, as they don't encourage online payment. Freecycle and also Facebook selling groups are also excellent places to source good stock using the strategies outlined above. Adding these online sources to your business plan will really give you some extra traction in getting a good amount of profitable stock into your amazon inventory.

I'm still not sure where to start looking on eBay......

Start with local searches. Pick a category and then narrow the search down to what was shown in chapter 2: Auction>new>within 5 miles

You will quickly gain confidence when you have a few sales under your belt. Go over what was taught in previous chapters and you will succeed, because, this is what I do every day and make a living doing it.

Isn't it risky buying from eBay or other sources to sell on amazon?

It would only be risky if you didn't take care with your purchases. As shown above, you'll make sure the products you're buying are not restricted in the amazon in your country. You'll ensure that if you are buying new products, that they are actually new when they arrive at your home. And, as in any new or used retail arbitrage purchase you 45 make for re-sale, you'll ensure it's processed properly for amazon, as in clean packaging, all parts present and correct, and listed exactly as shown on amazon's product page. If you are conscientious and pay attention to detail as in other aspects of your business, then you'll lessen any potential for problems. Remember, many amazon sellers only sell used products, such as books. Used items may require a little more processing, such as poly bagging or bubble wrapping, removing labels, etc. This is all part and parcel of online retailing. If buying from eBay we won't have receipts, will we? When listing an item as new on amazon, don't we need original retail receipts to back up those purchases?

No. If you are listing in a restricted category that you have permission to sell in, then, yes, you need wholesale purchase receipts. But, all other unrestricted categories, you do not need any purchase receipts to prove the item is new.

Final thoughts: I cannot emphasize enough the importance of eBay in building your amazon business. So often I hear folks complaining that they have trawled through their local stores and can't find anything profitable to sell on amazon, or, trod the same old worn path to the online stores that everyone is using for arbitrage buys. And even when I demonstrate the money I am making buying from eBay and selling on amazon, some folks can't quite believe it's that easy.

The fact that eBay is not being utilized by most amazon sellers means the opportunity is huge for you to start using eBay to build a large inventory of fast moving stock on amazon. I hope I have demonstrated beyond any doubt, that there is no shortage of brilliant stuff for sale right in your neighborhood, and, elsewhere

46 through eBay's site. I am always developing and trying new strategies to leverage the profits from eBay into my amazon business and will continue to share this in the future. Get creative with the strategies I have shown, have fun and make money in the process. Best wishes to you all! Simon Charlton

Coaching

If you would like to be coached by me in these techniques please click the link below, enter your details in the box and click Submit!

https://ko296.isrefer.com/go/coaching00/SCharlton/

www.simoncharlton.com Resources

This is a short list of the other sites mentioned in this guide that I use in the eBay to amazon arbitrage model.

CamelCamelCamel

JungleScout

Onlinejobs.ph

Proven Amazon Course