Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Amazon, Ebates
For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.
Week 1 - First attempt at reselling
Week 2 - My second straight fail
Week 3 - My iPad mini collection
Week 4 - Bed Bath and Beyond
Week 5 - An iPad Idea for Your Staples Gift Card Collection
Week 7 - The Great iPad Deal that Wasn't
Today I want a share a deal from a Lenovo tablet I bought a while back. It worked out well (not as well as I thought), but it was a nice lesson for me.
This sale was actually one of the items I sold during the AMEX Platinum $20,000 challenge. I owe an update for it, but the math is a little complicated right now and I hope to update within the final week. Just a sneak peak from this picture. I just got paid over $3,000 from Amazon and they will soon be sending me another $12,000 so things are moving along well.
For a few days, Ebates was running a special and many merchants had payouts of 16%. Lenovo was one of those merchants.
I decided to look on their site for an item that I could sell for just about the same price on Amazon after fees, that way I could just keep the 16%.
I bought 5 Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 Pros
. The maximum was 5 and I also had never sold these tablets before so I wanted to see what it was like (Amazon rank was around 2,000 which is not a great seller)
Total price paid is $2,300.45 which comes out to about $460.09 per tablet. Amazon fees were about $30 and they were being sold on Amazon for about $490.
That's just about even and then I can keep my 16% portal bonus. Right? Well, close to it.
As I already mentioned, Ebates was offering a whopping 16%. That was $343.99 in portal bonuses.
I used the American Express Platinum to buy the gift cards on eBay which earned 2,300 MR points.
None
On this particular item, the fees ended up being $145.47.
Shipping fees were $5.56 for all 5.
Total fees $151.03.
Add that to the $2,300.45 I paid and your total price is $2,441.48
The price kept dropping online and it took a while for me to sell all 5. I sold the first for $470 and then the next 4 at $462. Much less than I thought.
Total is $2,318 from the sales.
$2,318 is worse than the $2441.48 by $133.48 or over 5.6%.
Here is how the numbers work
Cash = $-133.48
Credit Card Points = 2,300 MR.
Loyalty points = $0
Portal Points = $343.99
The takehome is $210.51 or 9.15% without any credit card points. If you count MR points as 1 cent, my takehome is $233.51 or 9.95%. Not too shabby!
I should only buy quick selling items. I don't know if I have the stomach to wait a week or two for my items to sell. Turnover time is much faster on iPads and other quick selling items and it means you need your float for a shorter amount of time. Also, sometimes a loss on the sale is still a very profitable churn!
For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.
Week 1 - First attempt at reselling
Week 2 - My second straight fail
Week 3 - My iPad mini collection
Week 4 - Bed Bath and Beyond
Week 5 - An iPad Idea for Your Staples Gift Card Collection
Week 7 - The Great iPad Deal that Wasn't
Today I want a share a deal from a Lenovo tablet I bought a while back. It worked out well (not as well as I thought), but it was a nice lesson for me.
The Item - Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 Pro
This sale was actually one of the items I sold during the AMEX Platinum $20,000 challenge. I owe an update for it, but the math is a little complicated right now and I hope to update within the final week. Just a sneak peak from this picture. I just got paid over $3,000 from Amazon and they will soon be sending me another $12,000 so things are moving along well.
For a few days, Ebates was running a special and many merchants had payouts of 16%. Lenovo was one of those merchants.
I decided to look on their site for an item that I could sell for just about the same price on Amazon after fees, that way I could just keep the 16%.
I bought 5 Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 Pros
. The maximum was 5 and I also had never sold these tablets before so I wanted to see what it was like (Amazon rank was around 2,000 which is not a great seller)
Total price paid is $2,300.45 which comes out to about $460.09 per tablet. Amazon fees were about $30 and they were being sold on Amazon for about $490.
That's just about even and then I can keep my 16% portal bonus. Right? Well, close to it.
Shopping Portal
As I already mentioned, Ebates was offering a whopping 16%. That was $343.99 in portal bonuses.
Credit Card Points
I used the American Express Platinum to buy the gift cards on eBay which earned 2,300 MR points.
Loyalty Points
None
Fulfillment By Amazon Fees
On this particular item, the fees ended up being $145.47.
Shipping fees were $5.56 for all 5.
Total fees $151.03.
Add that to the $2,300.45 I paid and your total price is $2,441.48
Final Tally
The price kept dropping online and it took a while for me to sell all 5. I sold the first for $470 and then the next 4 at $462. Much less than I thought.
Total is $2,318 from the sales.
$2,318 is worse than the $2441.48 by $133.48 or over 5.6%.
Here is how the numbers work
Cash = $-133.48
Credit Card Points = 2,300 MR.
Loyalty points = $0
Portal Points = $343.99
The takehome is $210.51 or 9.15% without any credit card points. If you count MR points as 1 cent, my takehome is $233.51 or 9.95%. Not too shabby!
Lessons to be Learned
I should only buy quick selling items. I don't know if I have the stomach to wait a week or two for my items to sell. Turnover time is much faster on iPads and other quick selling items and it means you need your float for a shorter amount of time. Also, sometimes a loss on the sale is still a very profitable churn!
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