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How to Make Money at Retail Stores

Whenever I visit a local retail store, I check out the clearance section. I want to see if I can find anything that’s discounted–I mean REALLY discounted–that I can purchase and resell either on Amazon, eBay or Craigslist. Recently, I visited a retail store because they sold toys in the back of the store that is often overlooked (this is a national retail store that isn’t fond of people buying lots of discounted products to resell). There’s always a clearance area located in this section. The following is my story on how I found toys at this store to buy and resell for a profit…

Look For Big Discounts

I arrived at the store at 8:00 a.m., right when they opened. I walked around the toy section where many toys were on sale for 30-40% off. However, when I look for things to resell, I look for big discounts like at least 75-80% off. Truthfully, 30-40% off the original price won’t be a big enough discount for a reseller to make a decent profit.

Even if something is on sale at 80% off, it doesn’t mean it will be a good product to resell. For instance, I found one of the Twilight board games sitting on a clearance shelf at a huge discount. I was a little excited when I saw the price. I scanned the barcode with the Profit Bandit app for Android and found out that it wasn’t that popular of a game anymore (maybe it never was–I don’t know).

The Profit Bandit app lets you know what an item is selling for on Amazon, and if you can make a profit selling it. It’s an amazing app and I highly recommend it if you’re already a reseller, or you want to get into the reselling game. The only drawback to using this app is that you need to be a Professional Seller on Amazon which costs $39.99 per month.

A Must-Have App for Sellers

There’s a free app you can use called Amazon Seller. Amazon Seller allows you to scan a product and determine if you can make a profit on it if you sell it on Amazon. It will even tell you if the product category or brand of the product is restricted. That means you won’t be able to sell that product without an approval request. Categories and Products requiring approval are listed here. Amazon Seller is also a great app because you can list a product for sale right from the app. You’ll need an Individual or Professional Seller Account from Amazon first. You can learn more about the two types of accounts at Selling on Amazon.

Don’t Give Up Too Soon

I almost left the store after scanning several items on the clearance shelves. Then, I found a highly sought after Mega Bloks toy and another popular game that were both highly discounted. After checking Profit Bandit, I added them to my cart. I didn’t think I would find anything else on this particular day. Some days are better than others. Then I saw a really big box on the bottom shelf. It happened to be a really cool dollhouse with which I was familiar. It was marked down from $129.99 to $25.99. I checked the box to make sure it wasn’t opened before. Everything looked good. I knew it would sell on Craigslist, so I bought it along with the other items. I even used a 15% coupon!

Upon returning home, I listed the dollhouse on Craigslist for $65 and had a buyer within a day; not bad for a few minutes of “work!” I listed the games on Amazon and they all sold for a profit. In fact, the Mega Bloks game sold within hours of listing it!

Opportunities to Buy and Sell Products are Everywhere

There are opportunities to make money all around us. In fact, when you get in that mindset, it can almost drive you crazy! When I walk into a store, I feel like I’ve left money on the table if I don’t have time to shop around for deals.

If you’re into treasure hunting like me, then you might like the book, “Barcode Booty: How I found $2 million of ‘junk’ on eBay and Amazon, And you can, too, using your phone,” by Steve Weber. If you have a Kindle and an Amazon Prime membership, you can read the book for free, otherwise, you can buy the book new on Amazon for around $4.95. It was published in 2011, but most of the techniques in the book are still relevant.

Interested in learning how to make more money with retail arbitrage? Check out this post:

Discounted Gift Cards Can Make You Money with This Technique