Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Turnover Tuesdays - Store Closeouts are Your Friend

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.




Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Turnover Tuesdays - Creating Structure for Your Purchase Decisions

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.




Earn 1,000 Bonus United Miles with $250 Purchase from United Shopping Portal

In what looks like a welcome repeat of a previous deal, United Shopping Portal is offering a spending bonus of 1,000 United miles for spending $250 or more through the United Portal.  This is in addition to any United miles you may be earning without the promotion.  That's a minimum of 4x United Miles for that purchase.

Direct Link





This isn't incredible but if you have a purchase to make that is about $250, might as well use this portal if another portal isn't better than 4x United.


You do not need to spend $250 in one purchase, it is cumulative from now until the end of the promotion which is June 30th


Full Terms and Conditions:
During the “Summer” bonus campaign, which runs from June 21, 2016 through June 30, 2016 at 11:59:59 pm ET (the “Bonus Period”), Member will receive a one-time bonus of 1,000 bonus award miles on qualifying purchases, in addition to the standard miles earned from shopping online through MileagePlus® Shopping. Bonus miles will be issued based on Member’s cumulative qualifying purchases made during the Bonus Period: 1,000 bonus miles for qualifying purchases of $250 or more. Returns, cancellations, shipping and handling, taxes, gift card or other cash equivalent purchases, and certain products are not included in the bonus award miles eligibility calculation; please see the MileagePlus Shopping site for details on product eligibility and/or any coupon code details or other usage restrictions. Please allow 8-10 weeks after the Bonus Period for bonus award miles to post to your MileagePlus Shopping account. The maximum number of bonus award miles that will be awarded to an eligible MileagePlus Shopping account through the “Summer” bonus campaign is 1,000 bonus award miles. This offer cannot be combined with other offers or promotions. Please check the MileagePlus Shopping site daily for updates to increased earning opportunities. Void where prohibited by law.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Staples Gift Cards Available for 15% off - Great for Merchandise or Free Points

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: eBay


eBay is currently having a great gift card sale on Staples gift cards.  You can buy $100 Staples Gift Cards for $85 with a limit of 5.


There are a ton of people who want Staples gift cards to buy merchandise at Staples for personal or reselling purposes and this is a great sale, but if you don't have that in mind, this can be a good opportunity for some free points when reselling the gift cards.

You can try to resell them on Raise but that involves a measure of risk if they don't sell and a hefty commission as well if you aren't bulk.

Another possibility that would work well for a lot of people is to sell to an exchange that has a very good payout.  There is a lot less risk since you buy it and sell the eGift Cards within an hour or so.


The best payout I know of right now is Gift Card Mart.  They are paying a full 85% for the gift cards which means that you make all of your money back on the exchange and you get to keep all of the extras.

The extras include:

2% in eBay Bucks ($8.50)
Credit Card Points - You can either use Chase Ink for 5x Ultimate Rewards for buying from PayPal Digital Gifts on eBay or you can buy eBay gift cards using MPX app.  From MPX you will  earn 2-2.5 United Airline Miles (850-1062 miles) depending on whether you have a United credit card and you still earn your regular credit card points.  Assuming you earn 2% from your credit card that will be another $8.50
Portal Points - Right now Shop at Home is 1.5% so you will earn ($6.37) from the portal, though your portal points may be negated if you use eBay Gift cards.



The whole process takes about 5-10 minutes so it may be worth it for some.

Keep in mind that Gift Card Mart only buys from Bulk Sellers.  If you aren't a bulk seller you can email them at bulk@giftcardmart.com  to try and become a bulk seller.

If you don't to become bulk with Gift Card Mart it looks like SaveYa is buying eGift Cards at 84.5% so you don't lose much on the exchange.  Verify that before purchasing.



Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Amazon Restricting Some iPad Air 2s

In the latest string of random product restrictions from Amazon, many people are experiencing restrictions when trying to list different versions of iPad Air 2s even thought they have sold them in the past.

In addition, some people are being asked to provide an MSDS (Materials Safety Data Sheet) for the product (some iPads and some Macbooks) because of lithium ion batteries.  Amazon has been selling them for years without asking for these sheets.  Kind of strange.


Bottom line it seems is that you always need to add the product to your inventory before you purchase it even if you have purchased it before since Amazon can change the rules on a whim.   Maybe this helps others get over the iPad or bust mentality as well. Start branching out.

I know it's frustrating but it's unfortunately part of the game right now.


Hopefully this all blows over like Microsoft and Sony products a few weeks back.

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Turnover Tuesdays - Replenishable Inventory vs. One Off Sales

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.




Friday, June 10, 2016

Amazon Adds Autopricer Feature

Sometime last week or the week before Amazon quietly rolled out a new function in Seller Central, an autopricer.


The autopricer will adjust your prices up or down based on the rules that you decide.

Here is a little video that Amazon put out to describe it:


The autopricer from Amazon is rather robust.  It allows you to decide which SKUs are autopriced so that your entire inventory isn't on the same autopricer method.  In addition, you have different rules set for different SKUs.

For example, if you are trying to have a firesale on one SKU, you can set the autopricer to continue cutting on that SKU, however, if you want to just be competitive on another SKU, you can set the autopricer to match the buy box until the price hits $25, for example

Finding the Autopricer



To find the autopricer, click on Pricing>Automate pricing.






Set Based on Buy Box

You can set the price to either match, stay below or above the buy box by a dollar amount or percentage.  You can decide to match all offers, all FBA offers (don't match all offers, that's just dumb), or only offers from other 3rd party sellers so you can exclude Amazon if you choose only 3rd parties and those with the same fulfillment method.


Lowest Price

When you choose to go based on the lowest price, you can set it to match, stay below or above the lowest price by a dollar amount or percentage.

When you are matching the lowest price you have more options.  You can match those who have the same or better sub-condition.  For example, if you are selling as new, it won't match those who are selling as like new even though they are much cheaper.  Again, you can exclude those who are not FBA sellers.  You can also exclude any people who have a seller rating within 5% of your rating (they may not get the buy box with too long a rank).  Again, you can choose to only match 3rd party sellers.


Benefits of Autopricers


The benefits of autopricers are obvious.
1) You don't have to continually monitor your prices if you are planning to lower prices anyways.
2) Quicker sales.  If you aren't competitive in your pricing, it just won't sell.



Downside of Autopricers


The downside of autopricers is a little less obvious but they are real and significant
1) Your sales may go up but your profit may go down.  Instead of waiting for the price to come back to you, you go down to the lower price.

2)  If it is known that you have an autopricer, other sellers may play with their pricing to lower your price and "punish" you for having an autopricer.  It may not be fair or right but it happens.

3) What happens when 2 or even 3 autopricers enter a SKU?  The price usually plummets.  This is especially true if one (or multiple) has the autopricer to cut the price below the buy box and the other has an autopricer to match or cut below the buy box.  Imagine that cycle.  Thankfully you can set the price to which you are comfortable cutting until but a lot of your profit can be eroded quickly.

4) You miss the upside.  When you sell too fast, you miss the upside.  This can be significant, sometimes you can end up selling for even more when the item starts coming back compared to when you originally bought.

5) Makes it difficult to reload.  If you are selling at relatively low prices, you will have little incentive to buy more since it isn't as profitable as you would like and you are already sold out by the time it comes back (often with less competition).

6) Difficult to share deals.  If you share a deal with someone who has an autopricer and it was going for $300 and they pushed the price down to $250, are you going to share the next deal with that person?




I have personally never used an autopricer and I don't plan on it now but there can be benefit for some as long as it is used properly.


Anyone have experience with autopricers?  How do you set it?


Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Turnover Tuesdays - An Amazing Gift from the Amazonian Gods

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.




Thursday, June 2, 2016

Prime Day is Mid July - Time to Get Ready

Amazon has announced that they are going to have another Prime Day this year in Mid July.  While many people thought that the offerings were ho-hum (I only bought some discounted Amazon gift cards), the numbers actually show that it was one of the best days of the year for Amazon in 2015, even beating Black Friday in 2014.





According to The Street



Amazon's (AMZN) "Black Friday in July" holiday Prime Day seems to have been a huge success, despite the criticism you may have seen on social media.
According to Amazon, it sold more units on Prime Day than Black Friday 2014. Global orders on July 15 increased 266% over the same day last year and 18% more than Black Friday 2014.
On Prime Day, 34.4 million items were sold on Amazon in Prime-eligible countries, translating to 398 items ordered per second.


That means that tons of people are going to Amazon and buying merchandise so you should be ready.  Amazon guarantees that arrives at fulfillment center before June 22nd, will be in your inventory during Prime Day.  That means start buying stuff to send in!















This will be my first Prime Day as a seller but I'm hopeful that it will be a great day.  Anyone sell during prime day last year?  Did you see a big bump in your sales?