Retail Arbitrage [Kindle Edition]

Mr. Chris Green (Author)

Book Description

Arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of a price difference between two or more markets, striking a combination of matching deals that capitalize upon the imbalance, the profit being the difference between the market prices.


For the first time in print, the complete, authoritative, and exhaustive manual outlining the Retail Arbitrage business model has been compiled and made available to anyone interested in buying products at the retail level to be resold online (used books and media included).


In this book, Chris Green will give you the keys to the Retail Arbitrage kingdom with the mindset of unlimited opportunities and abundance and not one of scarcity.


Empires are being built by using powerful new programs like FBAScout to source and evaluate items for resale. Pair this with Amazon's amazing fulfillment program called Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) to outsource the storage, shipping, and customer service of your items, and you have a completely scalable, nearly risk-free business model with a near-zero entry cost.


The techniques described in this book can be used by anyone, anywhere to build a small side business or large empire. The only limit is you imagination.


This is the BLUEPRINT for buying retail products to sell online for BIG PROFITS.

Early reviews:

Chris has been an invaluable part of helping my staff and I ramp up our Amazon business, and he's been the leading voice of support on our Amazon training course forum. He knows his stuff and I'm thrilled that he's "spilling the beans" in this great new book. Learn from a guy that "gets it". Anyone can start a profitable business using the ideas in this book - I'm 100% convinced of this.

Jim Cockrum
JimCockrum.com

There is no question that Chris is the master of retail arbitrage. Chris taught me his techniques a few months ago and I have been using them successfully since then. My wife and I spend a few hours every weekend finding goods that can be resold on Amazon. Then we spend Monday and Tuesday packing them up and shipping them to Amazon.

My last deal was a Bose Speaker system bought on clearance for $79 that had a retail value of $249 and are selling on Amazon for $215. That is a very nice profit. $97 may seem like a lot for an eBook, but you can make that back on one transaction.

Skip McGrath
Publisher - The Online Seller's News

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

**NEW UPDATED VERSION AVAILABLE** http://www.amazon.com/dp/1478251891/

Product Details

• File Size: 2666 KB
• Print Length: 265 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1466303549
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005Z2CYQ6
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #345,807 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Looking to start a business selling online? Put this in your cart. October 16, 2011

By Haunted Flower

Format:Paperback

I have been blessed, and I have built a retail arbitrage business over the last 3.5 years without anyone to show me the way. Today my company ships about 200 items a day, all with FBA. I have tried the FBAPower products in this book so I didn't need the information on what the products do and why they make selling on Amazon so much faster and easier. So in reading the book, I tried to take myself back to those days when I had no idea what I was doing and I looked for things that would help the average Amazon selling newbie.

The book's real value comes from;

#1 - A thorough explanation of what Retail Arbitrage is and why it works.

#2 - The variety of online resources and recommendations found throughout the book and in the back, many of which I still didn't know about until reading this book.

Over the last three years I have tried a few hundred times to explain what Retail Arbitrage is, usually to friends and family. Odd thing, each time I see them I have to explain it again. It simply is not a concept that most average joe's grasp. My family and my wife's family are well-educated, middle-class or better professionals and they simply DO NOT GET IT. It takes an ah-ha moment, and for me it was selling a $4.88 South Park plush toy to a buyer in the UK for $104 on eBay back in 2007. Without that ah-ha moment, the whole concept just never sinks in. I am grateful that Chris Green finally put it in a book because maybe, just maybe, I can get some folks to read it and our conversations at Christmas parties can be about something different.

What this book does not include -

Detailed explanation of the buy-box and it's impact on Amazon sales. This is understandable because Amazon keeps the "formula" to themselves, but certainly it still matters to most Amazon sellers

Detailed information on taking an Amazon business to the next level, above and beyond what you can scan, transport and sell. If you are a highly motivated entrepreneur you will have to find the next level of your business, probably around the $1 million mark, on your own because you can't physically scan, buy and ship that much product yourself.

A note on the author's references to the FBAPower software that he and his partner have developed and sell subscriptions to; Often when a book mentions software like this it feels like a commercial and the cynical reader becomes convinced that there are other options, which my be better, that the seller is omitting. I can tell you from spending a lot of time in this business that there are competitive offerings, but they are mostly bad. I have tried them, and I have tried FBAPower. I no longer use FBAPower or Scout because my business has progressed beyond Retail Arbitrage, but I still use FBARepricer. In every case the products where the best offerings and easiest to use, and I am always happy to recommend them. As the author says, test anything he says in this book. Another thing I can add is that most competing software solutions don't give you a cell phone number to call or a personal email address for support, you receive both in this book.

45 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Game Changer for Online Sellers November 12, 2011

By Susan Colarullo (Blue Twilight)

Format:Paperback

I've been selling women's urban wear on eBay for a little over a year in an effort to rebuild retirement funds left decimated by the ongoing US economic crisis. While it used to be fun to come home from my full-time job and discover that I'd made 10 sales that day, my excitement faded within a few months. After a workday spent writing computer code, the process of locating sold items in my portable Walmart closets, removing all the lint, folding, packaging, and printing labels has become -- let's just say -- more than a little tedious? After a short cruise this summer to the Bahamas, during which I happily freed myself from the bonds of my inventory after carefully turning on my eBay vacation settings, I came back home to find email from two irate buyers. One was a new buyer who had panicked when I didn't immediately respond to her email request to return a dress and actually filed a case against me, and the other a buyer who absolutely HAD to have her item before she left on her own cruise the very next day (seriously?). That was the turning point. That was when I realized that I could not tolerate yet another year tethered to 3 portable closets of liquidated Bloomingdales clothing, dealing with buyers who relentlessly nickel and dime me to death, all while submitting to arcane eBay policies that seem inexplicably designed to drive hard-working, well-intentioned sellers like me away. But when I tried to migrate over to Amazon, I was told that the clothing category was closed.

I considered selling from my own storefront, but each time I tried to build a product line and establish relationships with dropshippers, I'd inevitably hear some horror story about the dropshipper failing to fill orders, sending damaged items, or not honoring returns. Providing customer service to my potential buyers from my own storefront was also an issue. I'm an introverted scientist, and even the limited exposure to buyers on eBay left me feeling anxious most of the time. As if I was always one unhinged buyer or one negative feedback away from losing my Top-Seller status.

After a few months spent trying to decide what to sell from my storefront and how to source it, an email from Lisa Suttora landed in my mailbox, announcing the launching of FBARadio. What was this mysterious FBA, and why did Lisa think it was important enough to moderate? I listened to the first broadcast and was instantly hooked. Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) was the solution I'd been looking for. Sick of being constantly tethered to your inventory and dealing with insurmountable storage and time limitations? Just ship your inventory to Amazon and sell via FBA. Customer service and return processing? All taken care of with an army of Amazon reps. Not sure what to source? Chris Green, the author of 'Retail Arbitrage', has developed a smartphone application that allows you to scan an item in the store and provides you with real-time pay-out data for that item if you sold it via FBA that very same day.

I couldn't believe it. With FBA, I was no longer chained to my inventory. Two-week vacations might actually became a real possibility again. I could spend quality time with my 14-year-old daughter and finish that novel I've been writing for 18 months. Hell, I might even be able to retire before I'm 82! (yeah, no, that'll probably never happen, given that I'm one of the 99%).

Even as I pondered the implications of FBA, it still remained somewhat of an abstraction. And then came the real Game Changer. During the third FBARadio broadcast, I was one of the few lucky people in the chat room to win a free copy of Chris Green's 'Retail Arbitrage'. Once I read the book and grasped the underlying principles of FBA that Chris so clearly presents, there was no turning back. He explains the mindset of the typical Amazon buyer, going into great detail about why they're willing to pony up a premium for products that they want. His discussion of 'scalability' really hit home with me. With an unheated garage ridden with squirrels and a third bedroom already stuffed to the gills with clothing and mailing supplies, he made me realize that the possibility of being able to grow my business as large as I want and compete with huge sellers was an attainable goal using FBA. Chris provides great advice about how to price your items (being an FBA seller always breaks the tie), how to compete with sellers who insist on cutting their prices in a 'race to the bottom' (let them), and how not to panic if Amazon.com starts selling the same item as you (wait until they deplete their inventory, or find another selling channel and then STILL fulfill the order using FBA). He unravels the mysteries of Sales Rank (just a snapshot in time), tells you when to start worrying about FBA storage fees (for all practical purposes, never), gives a refresher course in elementary concepts of supply and demand, talks about risk (minimal, but not zero), and makes it clear that earning money doing retail arbitrage is real work. Chris also provides a fairly clear explanation of how margin must be the principal factor guiding all of your decisions about which products to sell, and why selling at higher volumes will never compensate if you're operating with low margins.

Chris's integrity, entrepreneurial spirit, and quick mind are evident on every page of this book. All you have to do is listen to an episode of FBARadio to understand that this guy is genuinely interested in helping FBA sellers with all of the insights he's gained during the few years he's spent as an FBA seller. He doesn't seem to view new FBA sellers as competition and neither should you, because there's such an abundance of opportunity out here that it can't be diluted by adding more sellers. There's that vast a pool of products in the retail stores. Dividing a nearly infinite pie into tens of thousands of pieces still gives each FBA seller a pretty big share of the pie.

I don't have a smartphone yet, but once I buy one, I'll be out there scanning with Chris's FBAScout. Who knows? Maybe I can retire long before I keel over dead at my desk, no longer bound by the chains of a rigid office job for 40 hours a week. Or at least able to scale back to part-time work, free to scout for products on a flexible schedule, hang with my kid, go to the gym, hang with my kid, travel to the Galapagos, and -- well, you get the picture. Chris has inspired me to believe that I can lead a more flexible life, free of the soul-numbing tedium of office work, with the added benefit of getting some heart-healthy exercise while scouting for products.

I highly recommend this book, especially if you're a baby boomer like me whose retirement lays in ruins and it's slowly dawned on you that you'll never have the financial resources to retire unless you begin generating a second income stream. Or if you're fresh out of college and can't find a job to pay off those pesky student loans. Or if you're one of the hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers laid off since the Wall Street debacle of 2008. In short, if you're one of the 99% and have even an ounce of entrepreneurial drive, this book has the potential to change your life. Chris will encourage you to take the kind of action that will fundamentally alter how you perceive opportunity and will provide the knowledge and tools you'll need to take control of your financial destiny. He even includes his cell phone number in the book and invites people to call him with questions. I'm dead serious. This guy is a real mensch (look it up).

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars You will never look back!!! Thank you Chris Green! January 23, 2012

By fbapowerup

Format:Paperback

I bought this book when it was selling for $97 and it is worth every penny of THAT purchase price! So...my question is...why wouldn't EVERYBODY pick it up for this low Amazon price???

I knew I needed to find out what FBA was all about after being on eBay for years. The marketplace was clearly shifting but it seemed like such a switch from what was familiar that I kept putting it off. When this book was recommended during a broadcast I was listening to I bought it for 3 reasons:

1. The fact that Chris Green believes in what he has to say enough to put his phone number IN THE BOOK!

2. It came with a money-back guarantee (in case it was too good to be true!).

3. Maybe...just MAYBE this would be the tool I was looking for to branch into Amazon!

I read the book and applied what I learned and ....I sold more than $20,000 worth of toys alone from mid-November through Dec. 31, 2011!!! I was also able to sell many of them on eBay using multi-channel fulfillment. I started with a credit card that had $2000 available and kept turning it over for that 1 1/2 months!

I'm not a "hype" person but Chris Green's book has literally been life changing. I have more fun doing my job, more time to spend with my family, and more money! Am I wealthy...no - but I can see prosperity from where I'm standing right now.

Incidentally - my son (an Army Infantryman) was home for Christmas and decided to marry his girlfriend. We had 6 days to plan and PAY for a Christmas Eve wedding. I would NOT have had the money to help them if I hadn't begun my Retail Arbitrage career!

Thank you Chris Green and FBA Power! I cannot say it enough!

More About the Author

When Chris Green talks, FBA sellers listen.

For the first time, Chris Green has compiled the complete, authoritative, and exhaustive manual outlining the Arbitrage business model.

This is the BLUEPRINT for buying products to sell online for BIG PROFITS.

Since 1999, Chris Green has been doing Retail Arbitrage, the business of buying items at retail stores and selling them online for a profit. From humble beginnings selling wrestling action figures on eBay, he has since perfected this low-risk, high-margin business model now known as Retail Arbitrage.

Using innovative and powerful programs like Amazon's fulfillment program called Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA), sellers can now remove time and space scaling restrictions that would have previously restricted their businesses. Sellers also now have access to the most complete mobile pricing data using ScanPower for iPhone and Android. Information is power and the sellers with the best information will make the best buying decisions and will be able to capitalize on all of the opportunities around them.

Join Chris as he explains every detail of this fascinating low-risk, high-margin business including HOW and WHY FBA works, the dynamics of inefficient marketplaces, and the psychology of the Amazon customer.

Arbitrage Definition:

The practice of taking advantage of a price difference between two or more markets, striking a combination of matching deals that capitalize upon the imbalance, the profit being the difference between the market prices.