I haven’t updated my retail arbitrage series in a few weeks. I’ve started a new job recently, which involves a 1 hour commute both ways, and which has understandably taken away a considerable amount of my writing time.
It’s actually the same job in a new location, if that makes any sense.
Nevertheless, I’ve continued to pursue retail arbitrage in the few spare hours I have in between.
Since the last update, unfortunately I still have not made any sales. I’m starting to understand that just because you are listing something at a price that’s really a steal, doesn’t mean the market is there for it. I think this is where product rank comes into play, in the case of programs like Amazon.
If the product just isn’t in high demand, it’s going to be hard to sell, regardless of how cheap you’re listing it. In these cases, I think it’s important to just continue to be patient. Ultimately I do believe all of these items can and will sell for a profit. Unfortunately I think it is going to be a crapshoot as to when. There are certain things I could do to boost my chances and visibility, of course, but that begins to eat into my bottom line.
Time is money, and if I’m spending additional hours perfecting and marketing my listings, then it’s cutting into my profit margins. Those are hours and minutes that I could be using to generate other profits somehow, instead of speculating and marginally boosting my views/sales on eBay.
My goal is to continue to watch these listings and fine tune them, but not spend much more time on them. I will continue to keep my eyes peeled for products that I would like, and focus my efforts on obtaining them cheaply and reselling them. Certainly there are buyers out there for the products I am listing. I will just need to continue to be patient.
So as of today, my profit from retail arbitrage is still 0%. My loss is still limited to the $35 I spent on the products in total. And my potential profit is still around 300% if the items sell for what I have listed them at. If time continues to drag on without any interest whatsoever, I will consider accepting 100% returns and continue to adjust fire from there.
It’s important not to be greedy. A 300% profit is incredible. But I also think that with a 300% profit, my products are still being listed for a steep discount that doesn’t cheat anyone.
We’ll see what happens.