About 15 months ago, I found out about Amazon’s popular service called Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). And after some time, I found out about all of the Amazon FBA business models out there: Retail Arbitrage, Online Arbitrage, Wholesale and Private Label.
The potential of these concepts and the idea of running a profitable and scalable business got me super excited. But there was one problem: they were all capital-intensive. And I had little money to play with. The other issue was that I knew nothing about selling on Amazon, let alone e-commerce.
Instead, I got started with selling used media items (mostly used books) and hit over £100,000 in sales after about a year.
Here’s a breakdown of the total sales by category.
This was great, we were finally in a position to take on another Amazon FBA business model.
If you want to get started with selling used books right away, I have a detailed free introductory guide to selling books on Amazon via FBA.
We decided to start wholesaling and invested most of the money we made from our books hustle into it. We’ve been reselling the wholesale way for over five months now, and recently did half the yearly revenue of our book hustle in a month — which is huge for us.
Without further ado, in this post, I discuss why FBA Bookselling is a great a way to get started selling online and why its a nice stepping stone into other more lucrative FBA businesses like wholesaling.
Why sell used media items?
If you have an aspiration of building and running an Amazon FBA business but have zero experience and little money to play with, reselling used media items is a great way to get started.
You will gain hands-on experience with Amazon FBA and build enough initial capital. Here are some other reasons why you should consider starting your journey selling used media — books, CDs, and DVDs.
It’s a low-risk, high return model
Reselling used media (used goods in general) is great for beginners because it’s a low-risk, high return business model. You can buy a used media item for as little as £1 and flip it for £30 on Amazon.
Here’s a book a book I recently flipped.
We sold it for £29.39 and we were left with £21.95 after Amazon fees.
Here is the net profit breakdown:
- Sell price: £29.39
- Amazon fees: £7.44
- Buy price: £2.5
- Other costs (packaging, shipping, and labour): £1
- Net profit: £18.45
That’s a 704% ROI (Return On Investment). This is why I love this hustle.
The low risk, high reward aspect of bookselling makes it ideal for people just starting out with Amazon FBA. It means you can get your feet wet with reselling and FBA for cheap. Compared to other FBA business models, you won’t need to risk thousands. Better to learn the ropes first before taking bigger risks.
The idea is simple, too.
You hit anywhere that sells second-hand media (think car boot sales, use bookshops, book sales, and charity shops), find the ones that are selling well with a high selling price on Amazon. Repeat this process until you have enough items and send them to Amazon FBA.
Reselling used media is great because they are:
- easy to get hold off. Used media is everywhere. You can hit your local car boot sale or charity shop and find profitable books straight away.
- cheap. You can build your inventory level quickly without breaking the bank.
- small and lightweight. Although some books are heavy, most media items are small and lightweight, making them easy to prep for FBA.
It’s also scalable
There’s huge potential to scale in used media. Just look at the top Amazon sellers in the UK. Almost 80% of the top 15 sellers sell media items.
These big booksellers make millions in profit.
I starting bookselling without the intention of scaling, but if you wish to, the potential is there — and it’s huge. The pie is more than large enough.
How much do I need to start?
Unlike other FBA business models, you don’t need a lot of money to get started. You can start with Amazon FBA bookselling with as little as £100.
But if you’re in a healthier financial position, investing more would give you quicker results. And provided that you keeping reinvesting your profits, you could build a nice stream of income.
But regardless of how much you start with, it’s important that you save and reinvest your profits in buying more inventory. This way, you can grow your business to a point where you can transition into more profitable Amazon FBA business models like wholesaling.
Is selling used media via FBA hard?
Yes and no.
In theory, no. You look up books, find the ones with a high selling price and high demand, send them to Amazon FBA, and watch the sales come in.
But here’s why it’s hard: a small number of used media items are profitable and most take some time to sell.
In fact, Most of the items (95%) that you look are likely to be junk. But if you go through enough items, you will find gems. And the great thing with media items is that you only need to make your day.
A further caution: Selling used media isn’t sexy. It’s a real hustle and requires hard work, humility, and grit.
Conclusion
To conclude, reselling used media is a good stepping stone into other business models — Amazon based or not. You will get a feel for selling online, master the skill at the heart of every business out there: buy low, sell high; and make decent money along the way.
And regardless of whether you want to make an additional income stream or build an e-commerce empire, reselling used media items is a great way to start — especially if you little money to play with.
Oh, by the way, I’ve been selling used books for over 18 months now and it’s as addictive as when I first started. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Resources to help you get started selling online
If you have no idea what FBA is and what bookselling involves, I would recommend reading my introductory guide to selling books on Amazon through FBA. In which, I guide you into FBA Bookselling and give you everything you need to know in detail.
After that, you’ll probably want to check out the tools and resources you need to get started with FBA bookselling, outlined concisely.
Here are some other resources you’ll find useful: