Coli Brehs Who Need A Side Hustle: Let Me Put You Up On Game With Amazon FBA

[True Blue Moon]

How do y'all handle your taxes, record keeping and bank accounts?

 

[True Blue Moon]

Just made an FBA account. Bout to open a checking account for just this. Probably bout to get my hands on a scanning app too to play around with it for now.

 

[™BlackPearl The Empress™]

Making my shipping plan right now and Amazon put one of my items "under hazmat review" and asked me for a Material Safety Document Sheet...I just found out that this product is made by a private company in Hong Kong so I'm probably not gonna be able to get one anytime soon but has anyone else had to deal with this? how do I avoid going through this in the future?

This is the product right here:

http://www.sears.com/makeyour-build-your-own-wood-race-car-paint/p-SPM7721577828

It's the paint. They won't accept it. Just have them send it back. Usually their is a hazmat warning in the seller app.

 

[™BlackPearl The Empress™]

How do y'all handle your taxes, record keeping and bank accounts?

I use go daddy's accounting software. You can link PayPal, Ebay and Amazon. It categorizes and stores the info automatically. Taxes were super easy last year.

 

[™BlackPearl The Empress™]

Just made an FBA account. Bout to open a checking account for just this. Probably bout to get my hands on a scanning app too to play around with it for now.

Good luck!

 

[True Blue Moon]

I use go daddy's accounting software. You can link PayPal, Ebay and Amazon. It categorizes and stores the info automatically. Taxes were super easy last year.

Word. I saw that mentioned so I'l probably check out the free trial. Is it set up so that you can use it in your personal life also or just business stuff? Trying to get my money right in all regards.

Good luck!

Thanks homie

 

[Grizzly]

i havent started myself only done research so far but it's better to start small even if the profit margins will be smaller obviously at least it's better than being stuck with expensive inventory collecting dust at amazons warehouse. Look over at reddit they have a great sub with lots of information dedicated to fba.

yea im starting small now just so I can familiarize myself with the whole process...i bought a box of 100 cds and audiobooks for $20 from this thrift store that just wanted to get it off their hands, scanned all of them with the Decluttr iphone app to see what they were worth and put the most valuable ones to the side to sell for FBA...i expect the audiobooks to sell well..not too sure about the cd's but if they dont im not trippin

It's the paint. They won't accept it. Just have them send it back. Usually their is a hazmat warning in the seller app.

oooh ok...i didnt even send it off yet i saw the hazmat warning when was time to put together my shipping plan...honestly, unless I see a real good deal, im just gonna avoid selling toys on Amazon...it seems like too much of a hassle and i'll have better luck selling them on Ebay anyway

 

[True Blue Moon]

Where do y'all get your boxing and shipping supplies?

 

[Grizzly]

Where do y'all get your boxing and shipping supplies?

www.Uline.com

or search for what you need on Ebay..you should find some good deals

 

[True Blue Moon]

www.Uline.com

or search for what you need on Ebay..you should find some good deals

Good looking out. I haven't started acquiring items or shipping yet -- is it typically one load of items per big box, i.e. 50 cans of tomato sauce/toys/cereal/etc. shipped off to the fulfillment center, or could it be a bunch of different items in one box and then Amazon sorts it when it gets there?

 

[™BlackPearl The Empress™]

Word. I saw that mentioned so I'l probably check out the free trial. Is it set up so that you can use it in your personal life also or just business stuff? Trying to get my money right in all regards.



Thanks homie

You can use it however you like. It's very easy to use.

 

[™BlackPearl The Empress™]

Good looking out. I haven't started acquiring items or shipping yet -- is it typically one load of items per big box, i.e. 50 cans of tomato sauce/toys/cereal/etc. shipped off to the fulfillment center, or could it be a bunch of different items in one box and then Amazon sorts it when it gets there?

Both.

 

[™BlackPearl The Empress™]

yea im starting small now just so I can familiarize myself with the whole process...i bought a box of 100 cds and audiobooks for $20 from this thrift store that just wanted to get it off their hands, scanned all of them with the Decluttr iphone app to see what they were worth and put the most valuable ones to the side to sell for FBA...i expect the audiobooks to sell well..not too sure about the cd's but if they dont im not trippin

oooh ok...i didnt even send it off yet i saw the hazmat warning when was time to put together my shipping plan...honestly, unless I see a real good deal, im just gonna avoid selling toys on Amazon...it seems like too much of a hassle and i'll have better luck selling them on Ebay anyway

Well... It depends. New items Amazon. Used items Ebay.

 

[TRFG]

So as we know, black folks as a group are the least likely to enter legitimate forms of entrepreneurship...and that thread about blacks with degrees making less than HS dropout cacs kind of hurt me to read...so I decided to make a Q&A thread about a sweet side hustle I've been into, which is selling goods via Amazon's Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA) program.

What Is FBA?

FBA is basically the process of sending goods to Amazon's fulfillment centers across the country, and letting them store the goods and send them out to customers. Amazon keeps about one dollar for every three dollars you generate via these sold goods. It might sound like a lot, but goods sell faster via FBA than they do via Merchant-Fulfilled (you packing/shipping the orders yourself) and outsourcing storage/shipping is a huge advantage when you're generating multiple orders a day.

Why Sell on Amazon via FBA?

Amazon is either the #1 or #2 seller of retail goods in the country, with millions of unique users coming through their site daily. The huge amounts of traffic they generate are neigh-impossible to match as an independent seller which for the most part offsets the fees they take and your $40/mo subscription fee to sell as a Pro on Amazon. Oftentimes people will pay a premium to get something from Amazon because they'll get it quickly and they might not have the product available to them locally.

The fact that you can send products en masse off to Amazon and they'll take care of (almost all) the rest is a huge advantage, especially to people with limited space or if you just don't want a bunch of lightbulbs, lunchboxes, coffee filters etc stacked up in your house.

Where Do You Get The Goods And How Do You Know What Will Sell?

You can get the goods damn near anywhere. Target, Walmart, Ross, the grocery store, anywhere. The best places to source products in my humble opinion are liquidation stores but not everyone has access to those. You use a scanning app on your smartphone (my preferred one is Profit Bandit which costs $10/mo but there are several, including Amazon's 'free' Seller App for Pro Seller accounts) to check barcodes. If the item has a good sales rank and leaves margin for profit, you've got a good buy.

If you're really about that life you can buy whole lots of unsold consumer goods but that's only when you're ready to drop $1000s on merchandise.

Why Don't More People Do This?

A lot of people are simply terrified at the prospect of putting their own money up to make money back. You're going to have success if you keep at it, but you're also inevitably going to buy bad products that don't sell, Amazon might come in and Debo you out of being the only one selling your product by selling it themselves, and customers are going to return shyt every once in a while. There is risk involved with any business venture and if you're risk-averse and only comfortable getting money from a job, this ain't for you. I don't want anyone coming back in this thread after only putting up $20 on merch and bytching at me that they lost money.

For those of you who don't mind taking a leap of faith and you believe in your own hustle, Amazon FBA is a minimally risky way to get started.

I probably left out a bunch of shyt so if anyone has questions for the next couple hours I'll be around to answer them.

do you need a SS # to do this?

 

[Pyrexcup]

just found this website Amazon price tracker, Amazon price history charts, price watches, and price drop alerts. which can be used to check product ranks and other good information such as trending products