Sarah from San Antonio, Texas

[PBJelly]

Hi all! My name is Sarah. I’ve been a long time reseller and I specialize in new toys. I got really big into retail arbitrage, which while exciting can get very expensive very quickly. I have an eBay store and a physical flea market stall that I open when the weather is below 90 degrees.

I’ve been listening to the podcast off and on throughout the years, but got back into it during the start of the lock downs. I’ve been on eBay for a little over 5 years, which might not seem like a long time, but as a 28 year old single mom, it feels like forever.

I gotta say that I love the podcast and expect to love the forums just as much. Cheers!

[Jay]

Glad the podcast can still be useful for people who have sold for a long time.

Are you still doing the retail arbitrage for toys? How does that math work for you?

[PBJelly]

Glad the podcast can still be useful for people who have sold for a long time.

Are you still doing the retail arbitrage for toys? How does that math work for you?

I’ve stopped sourcing for the moment because my backlog is so huge. I recalled all of my Amazon inventory (210 cubic square feet) in May because the delays from March were not being handled two months in. I have 90 percent of it back now, so I’m trying to sort things where duplicates stay at the storage unit and the one I have listed stay at my apartment.

The numbers were usually doubling my money, sometimes I’d hit a home run and get to 5X or 10X my money, but I am usually happy with twice as much as I started with, after fees.

At my in person flea market stall, I aim to triple my money, but that whole business is a place I put things I do not want to pay shipping for on eBay. Lots of 50 cent Squishies sold for 4 dollars, and 20 cent Hot Wheels sold for a dollar, which is a great mark up, but those would never fly on eBay

I’m really big on store closures. I traveled the country when Toys R Us closed, then I did the same for Kmart. I messed around with the local Tuesday Mornings that closed (didn’t find a whole lot but I check those every month or two so no surprise), and now I peck around online from time to time to see if there’s GameStop closing within 100 miles of my house. Retail Arbitrage is a lot more work on the sourcing end, but that’s my favorite part so no harm no foul.

 

[Jay]

Sounds like you’re doing it smart. I’d always fear the risk of all the up front money. I imagine you sometimes put up $5k? to buy a bunch of inventory.

[Amatino]

Hello neighbor! Just up the road from you on the TX-16.

Well, okay, 80 miles up the road, but this is Texas. We’re used to long distances!

[PBJelly]

Sounds like you’re doing it smart. I’d always fear the risk of all the up front money. I imagine you sometimes put up $5k? to buy a bunch of inventory.

I’ve put up 20k for inventory trips before, after hotels and gas. I spent around 20k on my big KMart trip. It is still really scary every time, but I have a pretty good feel for the toy market. I don’t worry as much about say, LEGOS, as I do for like Little People (though Little People sell really well too, in my experience) or VTech.

And @amatino, yeah 80 miles is nothing to a Texan. I was just up 16 for a pumpkin patch today!

[Jay]

$20k to buy inventory! You are brave. I’m nervous when we spend $1k at an auction, even when I know we’ll sell a couple things quickly to make our money back.

[Author]

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