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Online Book Arbitrage: Why Amazon itself is the best source of used books to resell in the world
How I went from online book arbitrage skeptic to true believer. What follows is a story of going from old school purist, to fumbling online book flipper, to Jedi Knight of online book arbitrage - making money from a Starbucks patio. (And, I get a little personal. I hope you don't mind.) The story begins with me moving cross country...
The step-by-step process to reading the data on your scouting app (in under 1 second), and how to efficiently scan books to resell.
A rushed article on how I just made $1,200 doing online arbitrage during the holidays.
Here are 10 facts about Amazon feedback that no one talks about: Facts & misconceptions about improving your feedback score.
The article that is too good to be true: Ten proven places to find free books to resell for big profits on Amazon.
I profile 25 books I've sold for $100 or more, and share lessons on why each one was valuable. Welcome to a massive guide to how to spot profitable books to resell.
Three categories of profitable books to sell on Amazon that most sellers overlook: A guide to weird books most sellers don't know are profitable
Confessions of an FBA seller who bought a DVD rental store: I share the lessons I learned after reselling thousands of DVDs to resell on Amazon
How to travel for free: My 5-part system to pay for travel by sourcing on the road and selling with Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA)
Unfair feedback? A quick trick that might remove negative feedback on Amazon
Here's a quick source of books to resell that a lot of Amazon sellers miss.
Comparing Accelerlist and Scanlister: Side-by-side review of the two leading listing tools for Amazon sellers. Reviewing price, features, and lots more.
Bookseller Commander In Chief Peter Valley addresses the state of the Amazon bookselling nation in this year of our lord, 2024.
Complete FAQ on Amazon restricting textbooks: Are textbooks a gated category? Can you sell textbooks on Amazon? Everything there is to know.
The hardware and software behind a successful book sourcing mission. Go behind the curtain and see the inner-workings of a $1,000 Amazon sourcing trip.
The story of an epic book-buying road trip: 2,000 miles. 20 days. 1,200 books to resell on Amazon.
Stranger than fiction: Amazon support is messaging sellers with direct quotes from my last article.I was sure this was a hoax when I received this screenshot in my inbox this morning.It's left me wondering: Laugh, or get a lawyer?You have to see this to believe it...
Put all repricers on suicide watch: How I caught most major Amazon repricing tools lying about the blindspots of their software in one wide-reaching sting operation.
Complete guide to buying books in bulk as an Amazon bookseller: How much to pay, the 7 questions to ask, more
Yes, you can sell cassette tapes on Amazon (and people buy them). Here’s which tapes to look for that have the highest value on Amazon Why I sell cassette tapes on Amazon Cassette tapes are one of those “micro revenue streams” that don’t generate a ton of Amazon revenue for me on a monthly basis, […]
Lessons learned hustling over 1,500 CDs for $100 at a rummage sale - total expected profit, selling leftovers on eBay, most profitable CD categories, and more.
How to choose an Amazon pricing formula, and 3 sample pricing templates to get either maximum profits, maximum sales - or a balance of both.
How to identify counterfeit textbooks: identifying and avoiding fake books (that can get you banned from Amazon)
This is it: Everything there is to know about selling textbooks on Amazon. A guide for FBA booksellers.
A guide for protecting yourself against new Amazon FBA fees, and a bulletproof buying formula that guarantees you can't lose money selling books.
A complete price comparison guide to every major Amazon repricer and repricing software tool - updated for 2024.
I interview four practitioners of online book arbitrage, and ask: What's the best trick you're willing to share?
Complete guide to understanding Amazon Sales Rank: What does "best sellers rank" mean? Complete analysis & sales rank charts.
Understanding your Amazon seller SKU, how to customize it, what information to include, and why any of this matters.
What I learned analyzing dozens of DVDs and VHS, on a mission to reverse-engineer Amazon sales rank for movies.
The most overlooked source of free Amazon inventory is the garbage. Here's everything you need to know about dumpster diving for books.
My best source of books to resell on Amazon is one that 99% of FBA sellers are afraid to touch: dumpster diving My #1 book source has been a secret I’m about to give away my #1 secret source for used books to resell. I have more lucrative Amazon inventory sources, but this one is […]
How we caught amateur cons infiltrating Zen Arbitrage, and made them victim to an epic prank.In this article:
Everything there is to know about trade-in book arbitrage, Amazon's trade-in program, and how to profit from it.
Lessons learned from the weird world of reselling vinyl on Amazon.
What data is Amazon hiding from your favorite seller software tools? A guide to what Amazon hides (and doesn't hide) with your scouting app, listing tool, and repricer.
Welcome to the very first post on FBA Mastery(.com) - a new blog on quitting your job by selling books and more on Amazon.
The FBA vs FBM debate: The two reasons you should not sell via Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), and stick to Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM)
Can you make money buying books at Barnes & Noble and reselling them on Amazon? How "retail arbitrage" scored me a $900 book at a retail bookstore.
A day in the life of an Amazon seller: Finding tons of cheap books to resell for big profits at garage sales
The top Amazon FBA mistakes: If you worry about these things, you're probably over-thinking your Fulfillment by Amazon business.
Five small rules I break as an Amazon seller that make me money and save me time: Confessions of a rebel FBA seller
What is the definition of Good vs Very Good condition on Amazon? And does it matter? Exploring the difference, and the impact on sales.
A vigilante formula for increasing your Amazon seller metrics, getting positive feedback, and winning the Amazon Buy Box with Fiverr.com.
How I negotiated to pick up 100's of books to resell on Amazon from a recycling center. Lessons on reselling books from recycling centers.
New Amazon data blindspot revealed: How Amazon hides competing offers in Amazon scouting apps & repricers. Revealing: the "Bundle Blindspot"
On the long-term impacts of Amazon pricing strategy decisions on your business.
Why there's more to a book's demand than Amazon sales rank, and relying entirely on "best seller rank" (BSR) can be deceiving
Quick tutorial on answer the question: How far below Amazon's offer should you price your listing?
Introducing the "30/60 Rule": A formula for determining when your FBA inventory should sell, and how fast your books should sell on Amazon.
Learn how quickly Amazon Sales Rank can fall: I track the BSR of two books after a single sale, and am floored by the results.
The story of how I automated the process of repairing Amazon “high pricing errors” (and am sharing the method with you here – free).
My first big estate sale score, an herbalism book goldmine, and how I learned to love reselling items from estate sales
My biggest book sale score yet: How I raided a library sale and found over 800 books to resell on Amazon in one day. The step-by-step story...
How I found (mostly) cheap but (sort of) high-demand marketing products and sold them for big profits with Fulfillment by Amazon.
Reselling CDs on Amazon: How bought 1,000 used heavy metal CDs on Craigslist, and sold them for big profits on Amazon
My formula for paying $7 an hour to do the boring but necessary job of outsourcing my Amazon FBA repricing.
Every trick I used to profit over $1,000 from the worst library book sale in the world, and how to find books to resell in any environment.
How do you know if you're repricing too often? Or not often enough? A look at the best repricing schedule for Amazon sellers
A battlecry on the importance of intelligent Amazon pricing strategy. Why is pricing strategy so important? Pricing is second only to your inventory in what separates the people who make a lot of money on Amazon from the people who merely just do “okay.” Pricing, Amazon sellers put so much emphasis on sourcing inventory, and […]
An Amazon bookseller gives insights on how he worked a university library book sale – and will be $30,000 richer for the effort.
Interview with a rogue Amazon seller doing five-figures in monthly sales while traveling. The secrets of running a six-figure FBA business from the road.
Book sourcing & the “zen” of spotting value: How two FBA booksellers with the same tools & knowledge achieve greatly different results.
How should you react to your Amazon inventory being repeatedly underpriced? Forming a strategic response to low-balling competitors.
How to get a UPC code for Amazon: The missing link to creating a product page, and adding a product to Amazon's catalog
Step by step guide on how to create a product detail page on Amazon, and add items to Amazon's catalog.
The top 5 clues a textbooks is fake: Every step for avoiding counterfeit textbooks - a guide for Amazon sellers.
Listings deactivated from high price alerts? Here are two ways to fix those Amazon "High Pricing Errors" that drive every seller insane.
Wondering why your inventory isn't selling on Amazon? Good news: There's only two reasons. Here's how to boost sales by fixing both.
How to check sales on Amazon, and feed the addiction of knowing the moment your Amazon inventory sells
How to see and track your Amazon returns in Seller Central. Where to see what inventory was returned, if you were reimbursed, and more.
Every step to going from nothing, to making an extra $1,000 a month reselling books on Amazon (written by a real bookseller). How to sign up for an Amazon account, where to find books, how to list them for sale, how to price them, and everything you need to know.
Guide to pricing books on Amazon when you have no competitors.
Step-by-step formula for intelligently pricing used books for sale on Amazon - and getting a sale in the time frame you want for the best price.
Exactly how to quickly get rid of old Amazon inventory - and why you'd want to.
My step-by-step process for manually updating prices inside Amazon Seller Central - in the quickest way possible, using no paid tools.
Yes, it is possible to get more for a book on eBay than you can on Amazon. Introducing the "book bundling trick."
Going beyond Amazon Sales Rank: How to tell what books sell on Amazon with a 4-part test to determine if a book has demand.
A seven-step guide to finding book sources using BookSaleFinder.com - and how to use the biggest library book sale database.
Super in-depth look at pricing & repricing for Amazon sellers: Pricing strategy, how to reprice inventory, how to set a price, how to choose a repricer, and tons more.
Confessions of an FBA seller who bought a DVD rental store, driving cross-country for 3,000 DVDs to sell FBA
Interview with Ryan Grant of Online Selling Experiment, a six-figure Amazon and eBay seller who went from $1,000 a month to $9,000 a month in 90 days.
Can you make a full-time income dumpster driving for books to resell on Amazon? An interview with professional dumpster diver Jeremy.
Interview with eBay bookseller Jesse, who shares his complete system for quitting his job, retiring his wife, and selling books full time on eBay (all while living in rural North Dakota)
Interview: A conversation with Stephen Smotherman on the weird world of reselling board games on Amazon
Joe Waynick explains why he sells books on Amazon, advanced Amazon selling, and his book Advanced Internet Bookselling Techniques.
Interview with CD selling expert on how he makes thousands reselling CDs on Amazon, sales rank for CDs, the most profitable genres, more.
Destroying the hoax about swarms of new sellers making Amazon FBA saturated.
Is Amazon punishing sellers by "shadow banning" your FBA listings if you haven't made a recent shipment? A conspiracy theory
Going deep into the popular Amazon listing tool: Every Go2Lister feature, what sets it apart, pricing, and more. Does it live up to the hype? Let's find out...
A lesson in books with bad Amazon sales rank, and how to "see" hidden value in books no other Amazon bookseller would touch.
Lots of drama as the story of $1,000 trade in credit tool gets even worse
Guide to reselling books from thrift stores: How a trip to the thrift store yields nearly $1,000 in books to resell on Amazon.
A guide for Amazon sellers on how to prepare for the holidays: What sells on Amazon during the holidays, how to reprice your inventory, and why FBA sellers dominate holiday sales
I found a book on how to make crystal meth in your kitchen. It's selling on Amazon for $75. And I don't know what to do.
The library dumpster that pays my rent begins locking their book recycling bins
My experiment buying 500 CDs on Craiglist to sell on Amazon: The positives & negatives of buying & reselling used CDs.
A story of my recent (failed) attempt at sourcing textbooks to resell on Amazon by setting up a book collection box at a major university.
The top lessons I learned after one year of teaching (and doing) online book arbitrage, and sourcing books online to resell on Amazon
The results of my ridiculous experiment selling cassette tapes on Amazon. A lesson in selling obsolete items with bad sales ranks via FBA.
My book sourcing experiment buying 40 niche books to resell on Amazon - without scanning them - to see if I could make money totally blind.
Can you make money buying books to resell from 25 random garage sales, with no advance research?I did an experiment to find out.
How to profit from library book sales: My top 7 tips for Amazon sellers to maximize your profits and destroy your competition.
The top two categories to look for and make the most profit selling VHS on Amazon
How to profit from one of the biggest secrets of sourcing books to sell: A weird textbook publisher most Amazon sellers miss.
A comprehensive review of NeuroPrice, the first repricer to automate your repricing directly inside Amazon. Five reasons it's unique.
My new book is out (and it's free). "Reselling For Rebels" is 396 pages on every trick to selling used books (and more) on Amazon, building an empire, and quitting your job forever.
The step-by-step online arbitrage system called “pricing hacking”: How to find underpriced & mispriced books on Amazon, buy them, and resell them back on Amazon for a profit.
Guide to understanding the Amazon buyer, and how to price your products for maximum profits.
After 8 years of selling books on Amazon, I realize I was totally wrong about how to price textbooks.
Why used bookstores are secretly one of the best sources of Amazon inventory to resell. Here are the top 5 lessons I've learned about find profit at bookstores.
How I profited by buying books at Barnes & Noble and reselling them on Amazon: My recent (& profitable) "retail arbitrage" textbook hustle
I studied all 30 Amazon repricing tools. Here is my full audit of every one: Features, prices, what makes them unique, more.
How textbook publishers, Amazon, and a law firm conspired to place fake orders to falsely accuse sellers of listing "counterfeit" textbooks
How to see the FBA offers on your scanning app that Amazon doesn't want you to see: A guest post from Nathan Holmquist of Scanlister.
Yes, you can sell used vinyl records on Amazon. Here's my recent experience selling vinyl on Amazon (and why I should have started sooner).
Every way to sell on Amazon for 2023: The pros and cons of the most popular Amazon FBA business models
The sad truth: Your Amazon scanning app isn't showing you many FBA offers. Here's a history lesson on what happened, and why.
How a ScoutIQ feature that claims to measure sales on Amazon actually misleads sellers, and is worse than Amazon Sales Rank.
Exploring an overlooked Amazon inventory source: The weird underground world of overstock and liquidation stores.
A collection of tested Amazon book condition notes you can steal for New, Like New, Very Good, Good, and Acceptable conditions; + bonus notes for textbooks, used CDs and DVDs, more.
Why setting scanning app "profit triggers" is a disaster for Amazon sellers, and you should stop using them immediately.
In four hours I find over $500 in books that college students threw away.Here's what I learned, what dumpsters I hit, the weirdest thing I found, and how to capitalize off the #1 dumpster diving day of the year for books.
Textbook season is the biggest time of year for Amazon FBA booksellers: Here's verything you need to know for maximum profits
When its okay to break the “3x Amazon Profit” rule, and accept smaller Amazon profit margins What is the “3x Rule”? The “3x rule” is basically this: Only buy inventory you’re sure you’re going to get triple your money back on. Some Amazon sellers apply this to gross profits, some apply it to net profits. […]
A simple trick to sell books on eBay for more than you can on Amazon using the "book bundling" technique.
The first article to expose "the FBA blindspot" in depth: The data Amazon hides from scanning apps and repricers, and how it's costing sellers thousands.
I pull over 100 poorly ranked books from a dumpster and list for sale on Amazon FBA. Six months later, here are the sales results.
What minimum payout should you accept when selling books? When is a book not worth enough money to sell? A guide to setting minimum profits when selling books on Amazon.
The most valuable book types for Amazon sellers to look for - books that hold their value and sell for the biggest profits.
Three simple tweaks you can make that will grow your Amazon business, and double your income this year
How I figured out "the missing link" of Amazon bookselling, and the REAL secret of how to find profitable books to resell
Every factor to consider when pricing books on Amazon: Condition, Best Seller Rank, pricing history, more.
What are the least profitable books to resell? Here are the top 7 categories to avoid if you're selling books on Amazon.
The only Amazon pricing strategy guide you'll ever need: How to develop a strategic pricing formula (and maximize the balance between sales and profits).
A two-part test to prove your local Amazon seller competition has no idea how to source profitable inventory, and aren't a threat to your business.
The textbook sales explosion has begun. Here is everything FBA sellers selling textbooks on Amazon needs to know about maximizing your profits.
How to write the perfect Amazon condition notes: The four-part condition description framework that made one Amazon seller $1k in 48 hours.
The incredible power of "pricing leverage": Why FBA sellers can price higher and still get sales on Amazon
Reselling vinyl on Amazon: Can you do it? Does it sell? I ship in 15 vinyl records to Amazon, and track the results.
On a road trip, I find hundreds of documentary VHS tapes by dumpster diving behind a college library. The story of a profitable dumpster haul.
How I discovered huge profits in reselling small paperback books, results from my book sourcing experiment, and why Mass Market Paperbacks are one of the most overlooked and profitable book categories to sell on Amazon.
The two core beliefs to adopt when ease the transition from FBM to FBA selling. A quick observation about a major cause of FBA -failure for new sellers: Not understanding that you are playing by a whole new set of rules. How to transition to FBA Throw out the old Amazon selling playbook. Get rid […]
Amazon scanning app showdown: In-depth analysis of how ScoutIQ compares to Scoutly. Features, pricing, data and lots more.
The weird story of karma and revenge behind my Amazon trade-In & book buyback arbitrage tool. Here's how I got back at a couple scammers...
How to (sometimes) double the value of your textbooks by removing and selling textbook access codes separately
The pointless, bizarre, and totally true story about the first time I ever attempted sourcing books to sell.
There are only two things that matter in any Amazon business. You can do everything else wrong, and if you get these two things right - it's impossible to not make money.
A tragic story of how one Amazon seller lost their entire business to an Amazon suspension. A cautionary tale.
Over 500 books. A penny each. Free shipping. That's 500 books for $5. Link below. An Amazon mispriced item heist that will go down in history.
A short look at why there is a blackout on the subject of how to price your Amazon inventory.
Three weird but profitable book categories that most Amazon sellers ignore, but can be worth big money reselling on Amazon.
Truth vs lies: Here are 4 things most booksellers get wrong about reselling textbooks on Amazon.
From thousands of conversations with frustrated sellers, here are the top reasons Amazon sellers fail, quit, and drop out.
How to know what to buy to make sure you never lose money on Amazon: A specific framework for making smart inventory purchasing decisions.
A guide to the most expensive mistakes that Amazon sellers make, and how to avoid them.
A look at the biggest pricing errors Amazon sellers make. Fix these nine things and avoid these mistakes to maximize profits and sales.
Amazon requesting approval to sell a product? Here are the 3 scenarios you'll encounter, how to get past each one, and how to get ungated to sell almost any product on Amazon.
The secret formula to price higher than Amazon, and still get a sale. Here's the trick to pricing above Amazon and beating them at their own game.
How to sell your textbooks for 50% or more: Uncovering the hidden world of "textbooks in disguise"
Confessions of an Amazon underpricer: I used to drop my prices by 1 cent to get sales. This is why I stopped underpricing other sellers.
A complete guide to understanding Acceptable condition on Amazon: When should you grade a used book Acceptable? What does Acceptable condition mean? Will it get you in trouble?
What can Amazon Sales Rank tell you about how often a book is selling? What's a good and bad rank? Guide to understanding Sales Rank for books.
Go inside the top eight most popular Amazon repricers: A screen-by-screen tour inside every tool. If you’re shopping for an Amazon repricer, you’re about to get a tour inside eight of the most popular Amazon repricing tools. Watch as I go from signing up, to navigating the settings, to repricing inventory. For each tour, I […]
Weird retail arbitrage stories on scanning products to resell on Amazon in the most unlikely of places (i.e. aisle 11 of Whole Foods)
A "set & forget" template for your automated repricer (or manual repricing).
What sells on Amazon during the holidays? Here's the top 3 book categories that see a surge of sales: A guide for FBA booksellers
How to know when to grade a book as Very Good condition, the exact definition of VG, and photo examples: a guide for Amazon sellers.
Understanding the most confusing Amazon condition: When should you grade a book as "Like New"? How does Amazon define it? Answering ever common question about Like New condition.
What to know about “Amazon Resale (formerly “Amazon Warehouse Deals”) – often your biggest competitor for used textbook resellers. Amazon Warehouse Deals: An Amazon seller’s biggest competitor? As I write this, Amazon sellers are in the middle of “textbook season.” This is my second year in a row making more in the two weeks after […]
Do you now need approval to sell textbooks on Amazon? Are textbooks restricted? My analysis of the latest round of Amazon's restrictions.
Are DVDs gated? What can you sell (and what's restricted)? Myths, rumors and (some) encouraging truths about selling DVDs on Amazon.
What is the worst Amazon Sales Rank (aka BSR) you should tolerate for books you sell? How to know when a book is too low-demand to list for sale.
RIP best book source in the world: Amazon resellers discover my #1 secret book source. A retrospective and obituary...
Quick tip on buying Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) labels for a steep discount I have to post this to help out everyone who was making the same mistake I did for so long: paying way more for FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) labels than I should. If you were like me, you went down to Staples […]
The single best source of free boxes for your Fulfillment by Amazon shipments, and how to never pay for a box again.
Every reason books lose their resale value: Understanding the "5 Destroyers Of Book Profit" that cause used book prices to drop on Amazon.
Amazon's automated pricing feature: The good, the bad, and everything FBA sellers need to know about why it may be the worst Amazon repricing tool.
Why the number of items in your FBA inventory is virtually meaningless at estimating your Amazon sales.
How (and why) Amazon Sales Rank should be considered when setting a price on Amazon, and is mandatory for any pricing strategy.
The worst Amazon scanning app in the world: In record numbers, the Amazon Seller app gets confused for a sourcing app. Chaos ensues.
Why keeping a "book sourcing log" is one of the best things I've done to improve my Amazon inventory sourcing
If you're not repricing, you don't have an Amazon business. Here’s the three reasons repricing daily is absolutely 100% essential for any seller:
Why most of what you know about the Amazon Buy Box is a lie, and how building your Amazon business around "winning the Buy Box" is a road to ruin.
UPS Store owners reveal why they dislike FBA sellers. I swear no matter how friendly I am to people at the UPS store, when I bring in more than a half-dozen boxes of FBA books to ship to Amazon, they get a little short. Doing a lot of traveling, I’ve had this issue at stores […]
Selling used books vs new: Why used books sell more than new on Amazon, and a trick to exploit this for profits
Building a business around the Amazon Buy Box is a road to ruin. Here's why FBA sellers should stop trying to win the Amazon Buy Box.
The two types of Amazon FBA sellers: Micromanagers Vs Conductors, and why the most successful sellers keep it simple.
A complete guide to Amazon's "automated pricing" repricer, why it will lose you money, and the 8 reasons you should never use it.
You should never consider your cost of goods when pricing products on Amazon.
Understanding a fundamental principle of Amazon pricing: Your competition controls how you price.
A specific “if-this-then-that” pricing formula for selling books on Amazon.
The secrets, lies, and coverups around Amazon repricing software: The top 5 things your repricer doesn’t want you to know. Video: All the evidence your repricing tool thinks you’re stupid Your Amazon repricer is lying (sorry) Over the last year, I’ve spent a lot of time studying Amazon repricing tools. And I have some […]