My Multiple Streams

Got Returns? How to do a Removal Order in Amazon FBA

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Amazon FBALike taxes, its inevitable that you will get a return on Amazon. If you do FBA its an automatic process.

1. Customer complains
2. Amazon gives them their money back
3. It comes out of your account
4. You wait for up to 45 days to find out why or what complaint was.

If your lucky (or unlucky depending on how you look at it) and the item was actually returned amazon will then determine if it can be resold the same way it was OR it will be placed into your ‘Unfullfillable’ inventory. At that point you can either have the item disposed or have it sent back to you. If its under 20 lbs its only .50 to have it shipped back to you. Then you can figure if the customer was full of it or what. Then you can re package and resend to amazon or if it was actually defective you can maybe sell it for parts on eBay.

Its an easy process and here is a short video on how to do it 🙂 This is only after it is actually returned, not how to find out why it was returned in the first place (thats another post/video)

Multiple Income Streams: July Income Report

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Income_ReportDamn its already August, but Im ready for this Summer to be over with. Tired of the heat and humidity. July was alright income wise, its supposed to be slow online sale wise. Amazon was down a little but ebay was up of course being a full month of listing. So lets see how it breaks down.

Amazon FBA

Amazon was slow again, Summer, but picked up towards the end of the month and had a few home runs. I continue to send in once a week, well I did skip one week cause the sourcing wasn’t as good.

Amazon Sales

 

This is a screen capture showing that with $242.57 (less than last month) of goods purchased (only 76 units this month) they were sold on Amazon for $2061.24 with Amazon taking their cut of $507.11  I was paid $1,554.13. So after cost of good is taking out I had a gross profit of $1294.80, which was only $3 less profit than last month so that is great. Return On Investment even went up to 533.8% from 346.6% last month. Source items from thrift and garage sales instead of retail has helped quite a bit (and lowered stress)

 

eBay

Ebay Sales

Ok started tracking ebay sales in the spread sheet so here is the July’s total for 47 items. Cost of goods of $75.13 and got paid $1017.26 which after fees and shipping costs I netted $711.17, Return on investment of 946.6%.

Better returns than Amazon but a lot more work as I have to ship everything myself and store it at home.

Adsense

Adsense balance is at $72.53 for July so wont be paid till next month. Looks like hydroponics youtube channel dropped a bit, need to get the garden going and get some more videos up there.

Goals and Look Ahead

So with all that I finally cleared the $3K benchmark so happy there. Supposed to be ramping up for the Q4 season which is supposed to be the good months for sales so this month’s goal for online stream will be $3,500.

Still need to look closely at wholesale and online sourcing just in case thrifting doesn’t improve. I think being in San Diego there will always be garage sales but if I want to grow I have to find other sources of inventory.

Also this report is just for the online streams. I also have the photo studio of course and the web design/hosting business as well (which did a little over $700 last month) I may consider putting that in the report in the future, it is another stream besides the main business. Have to think about that.

So what about you, what are your goals for Aug? How did you do in July?

Ebay Radio Apperance

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ebay radioIn case you missed it, I had the honor to appear on eBay radio for a short interview. It was on Tuesday July 22nd and was only about 10-15 mins long but was enough to get my anxiety up a bit 🙂 Just takes about sourcing your inventory, couple tips on selling and listing, and a brief mention on photographing your products. If you missed it the link to the recording is below. Also check out some of the other great guests such as Steve Raiken and Charlene Anderson that appeared at July 22nd ebay Radio Archives.

My Interview:

 

Let me know if you have any questions below and Ill do a post on some of he subjects.

Amazon vs. Ebay: My Opinion

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Ebay vs AmazonI see and hear this question a lot; “where should I sell? Amazon or Ebay?”

To me its not an either or, its not a ‘vs’ issue.

While they do overlap in areas each to me is unique and have their own areas to sell that don’t do quite as well than the other. It would benefit any reseller to take advantage of both.

Amazon FBA

To me there are many pros to selling on Amazon FBA that make some items better to be sold on this platform. Basically if it has a barcode I am scanning it for Amazon, especially if its a new sealed item. Compared side by side most items (not all) will fetch a higher price on Amazon FBA. This is even compared to items that are sold Amazon Merchant Fulfilled. There is just something about the item being fulfilled by amazon that gets buyers to spend the extra money knowing that its coming from Amazon. Plus all the Prime members are getting that 2 day free shipping, they will pay extra for it just for that. Even used items that are in good shape, especially books do well on Amazon fetching a higher price that the same thing on eBay.

Another thing I love about FBA is that once I have gathers a late collection of items I just put them in a box (or two) then ship them off Amazon and thats the last I touch them. Its supper easy to list 50+ items in an hour then box them up. From that point Amazon deals with the storage, orders, shipping of each item and the customer service. I just get my ‘Paycheck’ every other week.

Now there are some cons of course. Amazon handling the customer service means instant refunds if a buyer requests it and you won’t know why for up to 45 days if ever. BUT most of the time it was a scam and buyer never returns the item you do get reimbursed so not totally a bad thing. On that note I had a return because the item was damaged during shipment from amazon to the buyer, I received a reimbursement for the item. Not the price I sold it at but more than what I paid for it so I made out anyway. That wouldn’t happen with eBay, you would be SOL.

ProsCons
  • Quick to list
  • Can get higher prices
  • They handle everything
  • They store products
  • Prices can go down while shipping to warehouse
  • Automatic returns/refunds
  • Payday is every 2 weeks
  • Restrictions on selling

eBay

Now there are some items you can’t sell on Amazon and for all those items I use eBay. For instance clothing, for Amazon you have to jump through a lot of hurdles to get approved for the category and items have to be new. Also items that may be used with out a box or vintage or unique items, they all would be better suited for eBay. I compare many of my finds to see who would offer the better price and sometimes eBay will win out. Take for instance the card game I found ‘Cards Against Humanity’ at a Goodwill. It was new and still wrapped but the wrapping had a tear. With Amazons rules I couldn’t see it as new, I would have had to list ‘Collectible Very Good’ which brings down the price I could ask. So I listed it on eBay instead and received $29 for it, $4 for shipping so I still made $25 which was the new price on Amazon.

With amazon everything has to be packaged well for storage. You have to box your mugs, shrink wrap this or bubble wrap that, stick a half doz labels on it. With eBay you only have to do this when you are ready to ship to your customer (and no stickers). This also leads to some of the cons of eBay. YOU do all your own shipping of each item. YOU have to store everything until it sells. These two things on their own take a bit of your time, then there is the listing. With Amazon everything has to have a barcode, with this you type in the items UPC code and everything is there for you. Photos, description, etc all you have to do is select condition and price it. Done! Ebay’s listing can take a bit of time. You have to take your own photos, then describe, categorize etc etc. you be lucky if you can get 4-5 items done in an hour.

ProsCons
  • Instant payments
  • Sell almost anything
  • You are more in control
  • Longer to list
  • You have to store everything
  • Shipping can become a pain

Conclusion

They both can be a pain in the ass in their own unique ways and you will always find someone bitching about one of them. You have to learn to work with the cons and make the pros work in your favor. Some like to just stick to the one platform they are comfortable with and thats great for them. I always think what would you do if that one platform went away? You would be screwed. So I would rather work with both for that ‘Multiple Streams of Income’. While Im out looking for those new items for Amazon I don’t close my eyes to those items that may sell well on eBay, in fact Im am trying to learn about more things I can sell so I can expand my inventory. If one niche isn’t selling well at the time, hopefully I have inventory in another niche that is doing well.

Don’t close yourself off to the other platform, it doesnt take that much work to expand and it could benefit you greatly in the long run.

Do you only sell on one platform or both? Why?