Amazon Flips Explained

Types of Amazon Flips

To a lot of people (even Amazon sellers) it doesn’t make sense that you can buy things from Amazon, to sell on Amazon. But the truth is, Amazon is just another retailer that has awesome opportunities just like you can find at Walmart, Target, or Kohls. Evaluating those flips can require a little additional work, but the payoff is well worth it. So why does Amazon give us this opportunity?

Flips that Amazon Sells

Let’s start with reputation. Amazon (and almost any other retailer for that matter) have the ability to price things according to market demand – but they don’t, EVER. As FBA sellers when we see a hot item that stores are having a hard time keeping in stock, we instantly see the dollar signs of opportunity, but retailers don’t look at it in the same way. When we buy something for $20 and sell it for $50 because it is a hard to find, popular item it is one thing. But if a big box retailer tried to charge $50 when all the other stores are charging $20, then shoppers would lose faith in their prices being low. Amazon is especially stringent about this and is even known to take a loss to sell you something for the lowest price of the other major retailers. Amazon, and all the others, are more worried about maintaining low prices and their reputation than they are maximizing their supply and demand profits. This creates an opportunity for you.

Speaking of basic economics, what happens when there is more demand than supply? Typically prices increase until equilibrium is found, and that is where FBA sellers find profit. If shoppers are willing to pay $50 for an item, we are willing to get that item from the store for $20 and then sell it to them at $50. Savvy sellers can see that demand is higher than supply and can buy the items to sell at a higher price when the big box retailers (including Amazon) run out of stock. Because even when an item is extremely popular, the big boxes stick to MSRP.

A few other reasons we can find profitable opportunities on Amazon is because of price matching, sales, and even loss leaders. Retailers use loss leaders quite often just to try and get you in the door to buy something else. For example, there might be such a good sale on cereal that the store is actually losing money with each box you buy. But they know that when you buy cereal you also buy milk, so they are willing to lose money on one item because they expect you to pay full price for another. Another good example of this is Walmart routinely puts items in the center aisle and sells them either at cost, or at a loss. Their idea behind this is that if you pass a display of really cheap microwaves in a center display, you will automatically assume that every microwave is cheap as well. The cheap microwave is bait to get you into the normal microwave aisle with the idea that all the microwaves are cheap, even though they are not. Anyways, loss leaders offer FBA sellers another opportunity to profit. And not just from the store that is selling them, but from Amazon as well. Because Amazon, like most other retailers, price matches and will take a loss on a sale to remain competitive. So if Best Buy discounts a hot new game because they are hoping to sell you a new PS4 with it, then Amazon will price match them and ultimately you win.

While this is less common on Amazon than with other retailers, you may also be able to get good prices because Amazon is trying to liquidate inventory. The truth is that maintaining inventory can be expensive, and retailers know this. That is why the clearance aisle is such a popular place in stores. Amazon has a robust warehouse system that is growing by leaps and bounds, but to a certain extent this still applies. From time to time retailers will put items on sale, or even clearance to try and get rid of the inventory that they no longer want to sell.

Te recap all of this, you can find profit buying and selling on Amazon for a number of reasons. Amazon sticks to MSRP no matter how much demand there is, and they price match other retailers even when the other retailer is having a sale or promoting a loss leader. All of which creates opportunity for you to profit.

Flips from Third-Party Sellers

Buying from Amazon is not the only way to flip from Amazon to Amazon though. Occasionally you will come across a good opportunity from another FBA seller as well. Other sellers might make a pricing mistake (think 9.99 instead of 99.99), might be trying to keep their capital in play, or might just be trying to clear out seasonal items.

Technically, if another seller makes a pricing mistake it is fair game. If they have 100 items in stock and misprice it because of a fat-finger, bulk upload error, or any of the other reasons it might happen – then you have the opportunity to make a lot of money. Personally I don’t like profiting at other peoples expense, but everyone has their own moral guidelines to follow.

Thankfully, there are also other reasons you might be able to get a good deal from other third-party sellers. For example, another seller might discount slow moving items to keep their cash in play. Selling a $10 items for 30% ROI four times is better than selling a $10 item for 100% ROI once in the same time frame. But every sellers situation is different, and if you have the funds then selling both the 30% and 100% ROI items is best. Not everyone can afford that though, so if you can then you have an opportunity. Other sellers might also be liquidating seasonal inventory, or have their repricers set a little too aggressively. Regardless of why, there are also a lot of opportunities to flip from Amazon to Amazon while buying from other third-party sellers. Both ethically, and not so much.

How to Find Amazon to Amazon Flips

Now that you know why the opportunity to flip from Amazon to Amazon exists, let’s get into how to find the flips. You can do this manually (not recommended), or you can use programs like Tactical Arbitrage, Keepa, or our very own flip group to help you find profitable opportunities.

Keepa

Regardless of which program you use, or how you find your Amazon flips, Keepa is probably at the center of the data. This is because Keepa has become the standard in tracking Amazon prices, ranks, offers, and other information related to the items we are looking at. In addition, they also have a deals page where you can go to search for items that are selling at a discount, or below their average price. This is also where you can figure out how often Amazon goes out of stock, and what the rank and prices are when Amazon is out of stock.

link to how to read a keepa chart

link to shoe flipping intro

Tactical Arbitrage

Tactical Arbitrage (or TA for short), also has a version of their program specifically made to look for potential Amazon flips. Overall, TA is an awesome program that is continuously evolving to stay current with the demands of FBA sellers, and that alone is a huge testament to their quality. The downside is that it can be time consuming waiting for scans to complete, and ultimately you’re on your own to evaluate the flips worthiness.

flipamzn

Another option though, is to sign up for something awesome like the flipamzn flip group. We track tens of thousands of items so you don’t have to, and then we evaluate them to only show you the best ones. Find out more about our flip group.

link to flip group

More About Amazon Flips

A few last things before we go. First, DO NOT use your Amazon Prime account to buy flips. It is against the Amazon terms to use Prime for reselling (flips, drop shipping, etc.) and you could find your accounts in hot water if you try. Instead, just create a new Amazon account to buy flips. You can even make it better by signing up for an Amazon business account. You can also increase your bottom line by using the Amazon Rewards card and collecting 3% cash back on your flips.

link to business account post

link to amazon rewards post