Here’s a twist on an old way to remove labels for Amazon FBA:
As you probably know by now, many items you buy at thrift stores or at clearance events have labels that are often very difficult to remove.
And one way to remove these little pains in the rear is to use manual label removers. I’ve been doing this for a long time now. I use them in conjunction with Goo Gone.
But it can still be a very labor intensive process especially if you are dealing with stubborn labels. Continue reading
Do you want to make money with estate sales? Are estate sales worth your time and money? The short answer it yes. But read my story and tips for a better insight into making estate sale money…
What’s the first thing you envision when you hear the word estate sale? Is it a nice home that is clean and loaded with luxury items? It is with me every time. Something like this:
My experience is not vast in estate sales. As a matter of fact it’s very limited, however I hit three estate sales over the weekend, and here is what the first estate sale looked like: Continue reading
Here’s how I make money from thrift stores and you can too! What I do is not rocket science, but I think it might inspire you. You may want to read my first article called Operation Thrifting For Gold because it was my first ‘case study’ and my readers really enjoyed it.
There is quite literally treasure in most thrift stores waiting to be found…
Today, I went to two thrift stores and spent a total of 2 hours, including getting in my car and driving there and back, and I picked up at least three hundred dollars worth of goods. At least!
As you can see in this picture of my thrift store finds (from one small store), I got some interesting things. Most of them are worth good money, and my return on investment will be significant. This is not everything! I got 7 more books in addition to all this… Continue reading
Here’s how to get UPC codes for your products so you can list them on Amazon, or other websites that require a UPC code…
Legal Stuff: This article if for informational purposes only. Do your own research before taking my recommendations or advice.
Here’s what a UPC code broker has to say and he is also the person I trust on this:
“You have two choices when purchasing UPC Codes. You can buy directly from GS1 or you can buy from a reseller such as us. The benefits of buying from a reseller is obviously the price. When you purchase UPC codes from a reseller you are buying a “lot” of codes within a shared prefix, when you purchase from GS1 you are buying an entire prefix.”
I have million dollar bills! Yes, I do. They are fake, so don’t get all jealous of me. Anyway, for the longest time I couldn’t figure out how to get them listed for sale on Amazon and some other sites that require UPC codes.
But finally I was able to get a UPC barcode and then list them on Amazon! Here’s my UPC code in barcode format (which I’ll never use):
Here’s my Amazon Barcode Label:
I did a little research a year ago and I discovered that, it’s freak’n confusing! So I stopped looking, and a year later I started in again because my million dollar bills are awesome and I want to list them for sale. I mean, they are better than all the other ones so why should they get all the sales?
So here’s what I discovered in regards to getting UPC codes for your hard good products for sale… Continue reading
I have an iPhone and have used three different barcode scanning apps for finding profitable items to sell on Amazon and Ebay.
I currently only use the FREE Amazon app which you can get easily on the Android or iPhone (read this article to understand why I do not use FBA Scan anymore). The two I will discus are FBA Scan and the Amazon scanner.
I am going to show you how to use and understand them both.
If you want to use your iPhone like I do and use the free trial of FBA Scan here is what you do. First, download the FBA Scan app. Just search for FBA Scan…
As you can see in the image above there are four columns. Let me break them down for you:
Like I said I just stopped using that app but you may want to use it yourself because it does have advantages (re-read above). I use the Amazon app right now because I am not doing a whole of Library books sales anymore (at least not at the moment), and I have a good idea as to what the profit loss will be for most products.
After you use the barcode scanning app you can see what it finds so that you can research the pricing of the product and it’s worth your time and money to buy and list it on Amazon.
What you want to do is look at how many new and used versions of your product are for sale and at what price. Remember that Amazon takes a percentage and fees from each of your products. Read this article on how to understand Amazon’s two selling platforms which you can participate in.
You are now ready to start finding items to sell on the FBA platform. If you start today you will start making money is just 1 – 2 weeks because it takes a few days for your package of goodies to arrive at Amazon. And shortly after they receive your package of goodies (they’ll send you an email like this…)
Here’s how to find stuff to sell on Amazon and Ebay Step by Step. It’s so easy you can do this on a lunch break or when you are getting a cup of coffee.
Follow these 7 steps to making extra money working a few hours a week (at most). It’s fun, it’s easy, and it’s profitable:
Step 1: Find Goodwill, Salvation Army, good thrift stores, even a TJMax, CVS, Wallgreens, Rite Aid, or Toys R Us (for starters) surrounding your home.
Step 2: Get the FBA Scan app for your iphone or Android. Also, I suggest you get the Amazon and eBay apps as well.
Step 3: Set aside at least $20 – $100 to spend (don’t worry about this yet. But the more money you can spend, the better).
Step 4: Get lunch. Eat fast, and then head over to one, several, or all of the stores listed above.
Step 5: If you go to Goodwill or Salvation Army, go to the book section, dvd section, toys, and household items, and look for items that look new or are in good condition. Scan the barcode on these items through FBA Scan or with the Amazon scanning app (FREE!), and see what you come up with (see the article on how to scan items if this is confusing to you).
If you go to the retail stores, look for clearance items, and items that are discounted deeply or are on special. You’ll see signs and stickers. Sometimes you have to walk to the back or ask an employee.
There is always going to be specials and clearance items at the retails stores. That’s the good news. The better news is that the most clearance items will be available shortly after Christmas, and after other Holiday promotions because they have to get rid of inventory. I have found great items that are below wholesale this way.
Step 6: No Barcode? No problem. Look this item up manually on Amazon using the Amazon.com app (you could actually just use this app on its own for looking up pricing, but it has its limitations).
You can manually type in the name of the item, or use the ‘Snap It’ feature, which works well for books and dvd’s. Or, search for the item on Google or Bing and see what comes up.
Search on Ebay as well and see if it sold and for how much (there are website apps that can tell you what to expect from different items. I don’t discuss this here, and I do not use them very much at this time, but I will in the future.
Do not discount Ebay. For example, I found an old booklet that I thought was worthless. At the last second I did a search on Bing and the first search result was for a closed Ebay listing where the same item in worse condition than mine sold for $122. This booklet only cost .50. I listed in two months later and got $117! Here’s proof:
Like I said, don’t dismiss items you think won’t sell or are worthless because there are many at every thrift store in America. I’ve found small items that sell well, and I thought for sure it was a waste of time. For example, I found some Dream Water that was only .99 cents. I listed them on Amazon and received $15 each. My net profit was $9.
SIDE BAR: Don’t worry about selling on Amazon yet, I am going to show you how to do it in a moment. There are two ways to do it (more on this in a moment).
You’ll find items like this as well.
Once you find an item with a good profit margin set the item into your basket and move on to the next item.
Some items are better sold on Ebay: Rare items, vintage items, and hard to find items.
Step 7: Bring your items home and get ready to ship them to Amazon. Or, if they are not an FBA candidate, list them on eBay.
Listing things on eBay is easy, but you should do a very good job of taking pictures (and I mean an excellent job), because a bad picture or two can dramatically reduce you sales.
Conversely, a good picture and boost bidding significantly. It really matters. There are some great tools that help you take professional quality pictures of small and large items from your digital camera or smart phone. For example: get a lighting tent and lights, and a smartphone or digital camera stand. These two things alone with improve your sales.
How important are pictures? Some sellers buy on eBay and relist the same product after taking good pictures and writing excellent descriptions. I’ve done it myself.
If you want to increase your amazon affiliate sales and earnings this little ‘hack’ I learned might boost your sales. It sure did increase my commissions with Amazon!
Since we are using a Pet niche blog, or site, as an example use your imagination and substitute ‘Pet Supplies’ with any main category in Amazon.
Do you think someone would click on it? Do you think someone would buy?
The problem is that there is no area on Amazon to search by percentage off unless they are having a special deal that day. But now there is!
Every category on Amazon has what’s called a ‘node’ that identifies it. A node is a number that is used to identify a list of products that are for sale on their site.
But the cool hack that nobody really knows about is that you can find all the products that are for sale at any specified discount you want. So if I want to see if there are any items 82% off the retail price in the pet supplies category (Node 12923371), I would use a link that looks like this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/?node=12923371&pct-off=82–
The red numbers starting from the left are the node number for the category, and the 82 is the 82% off.
Check this out:
You can’t find or search Amazon any other way that I know of.
The cool part is yet to come!
Once you have the link you want to use with the right node and percentage off, copy the entire link, and then go to your Amazon Associates center.
Click on Links and Banners:
Then click on ‘Link To Any Page’: 
Scroll to the bottom and copy and paste your link into the link builder in the Link to Any Page section, and type in the text you want where it says Name Your Link, and click Get HTML in the lower right corner:
Here’s what you get: 
All you have to do now is click Highlight HTML, and the right click and save it to notepad or your HTML editor.
Your new text link will look just as it is shown in the above image where it says Preview.
Some affiliates take the actual raw affiliate link out of the HTML, and then create a banner add…
ATTENTION: An Internet marketer that I respect once told me that you have to use Amazon’s tools to create links and banners. So I do not know if you can create your own banner and use the raw affiliate link. I do not know if this is part of their terms of service agreement. I’ve checked and can’t seem to get a definitive answer, so check for yourself.
With that said, they are pretty forgiving in my experience. Much more so than the evil Google Empire 😉
Here is what they had to say when I asked them if they had custom banner creation services or if I can make a banner myself and code it with my raw affiliate link. See if you can sort it out:
Hi Brian,
I am sorry, we do not offer banners for individual products. You are welcome to create your own, or you can create a product link in Associates Central.
You can find these tools by logging into Associates Central at http://associates.amazon.com and visiting the “Links and Banners” and “Widgets” section.
We ask that you use these tools to create the links you need. The tools will automatically insert your correct Associates ID into the HTML code, which allows us to track sales from your links and will present you with images where applicable. You’ll need to paste the HTML code into your website using your HTML editor or the authoring tool provided by your web host.
There are a number of links that we offer so please take the time to consider all of the linking options available.
I hope this helps.
You can customize the link to find products that are only sold by Amazon.com and not by other vendors on Amazon. You do this by placing this code at the end of If you want to limit results to just items sold by Amazon, add this to the end of the search:
&emi=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Example: The search below will show items at least 82% off in the pet supplies category but the items are only sold by Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/?node=12923371&pct-off=82-&emi=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Now that you know how to do this, consider putting a text link in a highly visible area on your site that says something like:
Or choose a different percentage off. Be sure to search for to see if there are items available at the discount price you are searching for.
I have a free tool that you can use to make this idea that will increase your Amazon earnings easier. Go to my webmaster tools site with the Amazon Secret Link Finder…
It’s really simple. Just select the percentage off you want to search, choose Node number (by category), choose whether or not you want all listings to be sold and fulfilled by Amazon (check the box):
Click Generate Link:
And then your link shows up in a gorgeous yellow box. All you have to do is select it all, right click, and then save it.
After that you need to follow the directions above to get your affiliate link.
Be sure to test your links to be sure they work properly before you get your affiliate link, and after. Even the ones with my free tool. If you have a problem let us know.
Tip:
Try using total notify plugin, which is basically the same as the Hello Bar, but free (at least it was when I first created my tool).
Credit Due:
The best product developer and Internet marketer you never heard of is Bill Myers. He is the one who showed this little hack to me years ago. If you want to get quality product development and information marketing ideas flowing like a fire hydrant during a summer heat wave, you have to visit his site. It’s been my little secret for many years. Now it will be yours. If you use that link you’ll see how killer his site and content is. I will get a tiny little commission if you sign up (it will pay for a soy latte), and you really should.
I wish I had known this when I got started because it would have saved me time and money getting my first shipment uploaded, labels printed, and then the items shipped to Amazon:
Also, I found that the FBA Scan app wasn’t always accurate. I’ll do a review of the other apps on my website, but for now all you really need to get out there and start finding some treasure is the Amazon app if you are strapped for money, or use the FBA Scan App.
These supplies and tools will get you started at the lowest out of pocket expense. But you will need other supplies as you go along.
For example:
If you enjoyed this article and found it helpful can you do me a solid and share it through your favorite social network? And be sure to subscribe to my feed at the very least or sign up for my mini course. Thanks friend 🙂
In this post I am going to show you how I am making money buying from thrift shops and selling the goods for a huge profit!
I’m going to show you some of the goodies I’ve found at a couple of local and out of town thrift stores. But before I do this I want to give you a little back story…
About 1 year ago I got slammed by Google for no apparent reason. Most of my sites dropped in ranking, and a couple of sites lost a little bit of traffic. But then, Google Adwords shut my account down and would not tell me why.
I Felt Like A Loser!
I told this to my brother and he said, ‘Well, you must be doing something wrong.’ I explained my situation and he couldn’t believe what they did either! I can tell you more about it some other time… Continue reading
As you may know by now, I sell eBooks and one printed book on Amazon.com, and the monthly checks are consistent from this effort. However, they are not huge. I don’t recommend this as a full time business model unless writing and selling books or eBooks is your passion.
However, I do believe in multiple channels of income. Selling ebooks on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and Apple is one of them. Here is a short introductory video on this: