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Used Electronics – Packing Tips To Ensure A Happy Customer

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Thanks Post-It Note

Many people avoid used electronics because of returns can be more likely. This is often due to the way things are presented. Many sellers will put an electronic item in a poly bag and ship it like that. I have seen them not even put the effort to ensure the item is clean and cosmetically presentable before shipment. This comes across sloppy and unprofessional.

The best way to present a used electronics item is to bubble wrap the item well, box it in its own box (even if shipping to Amazon FBA, just put a “This Is A Set Do Not Separate” sticker on the box), and to print the manual for the item (if it does not come with the manual). Depending on the item the cost of printing the manual could be high and might make it ideal to pass on that item. Just including the manual adds a personal touch and can help avoid returns.

To make the experience more personal on anything I am pre-boxing for Amazon FBA I will put a Post-It note with a handwritten “Thanks!” on it. It takes 2 seconds and it adds a personal touch that is normally lacking from Amazon and eBay purchases, and people actually appreciate it.

The main thing to consider is how the item will look when the customer receives it. Do what you can to best ensure that the customer is completely satisfied and you will also keep profit-draining returns to a minimum.

Newbie Help – Do Not Only Buy Products You Like!

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Amazon Seller App Scanning

The title may not make sense to you if you are new to reselling products, but the idea is that most of the people who get loaded with inventory that is not selling tend to buy products they personally like and think others will too. One of the early lessons I learned in resale was that it was the rare, the unique, and the thing I would never have any interest in that would tend to sell well. There are some products that I like that sell well, but if I amassed all my inventory based only on things I like then I would be a disastrous failure.

For the newbie, my advice is to not get caught up in only buying things you like. Do not misunderstand this as telling you to avoid buying items you are an expert in. You should buy those items you have an expertise in, but just because you like an item does not mean you have enough practical expertise in that category to know what will sell best. As a newbie you should be scanning everything you can get your hands on. Only with time will you develop the skill-set and practical knowledge to be more picky in which items you choose to consider for purchase and which you ignore. Ignoring items simply because they do not interest you is a sure fire way to miss a lot of potential profit.

Scanning items in retail arbitrage is extremely easy, but to be able to find profitable items may not be so easy. Do not limit the items you might research by scanning until you already know from your own research that those items are not worth buying. I remember the first time I saw a cross-stitch kit at a clearance section of a retail store. It is not something I would ever be personally interested in, but I scanned one, then another, then another, and left within minutes with about $500 worth of potential profit in a small amount of cross-stitch kits (all of which sold within a few months). Had I been looking for only things that interested me I would have literally been passing up easy money. Also, I now learned that there was real profit potential in cross-stitch related items, and so I can keep an eye out for them and find more profit while others ignore them.

Make sure you are not the person passing things you have never researched before. Research, research, research, and keep at it. You will be a success in retail arbitrage if you will never give up!

My Personal Inventory Destruction Crew

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My Personal Inventory Destruction Crew - Puppies - TaughtToProfit.com

I had 10 sets of Star Showers that were bound for Amazon and for eBay customers. FedEx, sadly, decided to drop at the curb instead of at my house. The neighbor’s puppies were happy to provide their assistance and had fun chewing the box, tearing it open, and destroying one Star Shower. They still ended up being such a great arbitrage opportunity that even the destroyed one sold for double the purchase price as is, for parts.*

* This happened on December 10, 2015

Shipping Essentials – Scotty Peeler Label & Sticker Removers

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If you do any retail arbitrage you will inevitably have to remove store labels, price tags, clearance stickers, etc. A cheap tool set for this job is the Scotty Peeler Label & Sticker Removers.

In my use of these sticker and label removers the red plastic one works the best for most situations I come across. The metal one works well, but it is metal and could scratch the surface under the sticker or label. Thankfully, this is a complete set that covers the removal of almost any stickers or labels you will have to remove. Just be patient when removing stickers from paper/cardboard as rushing it could cause it to peel part of the box off, and then you have a damaged item that cannot be listed as “New.”

If you are having trouble with getting a sticker off, like most have with those stickers on perfume that say this item is sold at such-and-such retailer and to call them if found elsewhere, then you may need a product called Goo Gone. A small bottle will last you a long time, so no need to get a gallon of it at one time.

Shipping Essentials – Box Resizer

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Often when packing up boxes to ship to Amazon you will have extra room. You can fill this with bubble wrap or air packs, but this is just a needless extra expense for the shipment. Some people already know to cut down the box to make it a tighter fit, but using a knife or razor to do it can weaken the box or even cut holes in it. The solution is the box resizer.

The box resizer creates a perforated line around each side if the box. Then you cut the corners so the sides can fold down along the perforated edge. You may still need some bubble wrap or air packs, but by cutting the box down you will decrease shipping costs and packing material expenses.