The U.S. is averaging nearly 20 million college students every year.
And I can’t imagine a time where textbooks won’t be a big deal for Amazon FBA booksellers.
Currently, eFLIP is the best way to source textbooks online.
If you haven’t seen the walkthrough of my first time using it.
Check it out here:
Usually, I don’t recommend that you use eFLIP right off the bat.
It does require more capital when compared to cherry-picking.
And you have to be super good with Keepa charts and money management.
Since you must wait for one of the two textbook seasons (August & January); to get paid out.
Even then, you’re taking a small risk on the condition of the books that you order.
But that small risk isn’t enough to offset the dope returns.
What is eFLIP?
eFLIP is an Amazon Crawling App that lets you find profitable flips directly on Amazon.
eFlip is basically a search engine like Google.
But instead of links, it outputs books that you can buy as MF (Merchant Fulfilled) on Amazon.
And then turn around and relist them as FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) for a profit.
You’ll discover that people are willing to pay dramatically more for FBA items with two-day shipping.
FBA isn’t the only factor that increases your margins.
When the college semesters start in August and January, the demand and prices for textbooks spike.
Then the prices drop back to normal after the season is over.
Giving you a straight shot at some insane margins.
Inside the eFLIP online arbitrage software.
As you can see in the below image, you can source books and media on eFLIP.
Now let’s run through each filter from left to right in terms of what’s relevant to textbooks.
- Min/Max Price Used – Think of this filter as how much you’re willing to pay for the book if you want to pay $20-$50 for a book. Set the Min Price Used to $20 and the Max Price Used to $50.
- Min/Max New Price – I usually think of this as my margin meter. If you wanted to double your money on a $20 book, you might set your Min New Price to $50 simply because the used copy will sell for less than the new. It’s safe to leave the Max New Price at No Limit since you can never have too much margin. Your job is to test different Min New Prices to see what’s best.
- Min/Max Amazon Price – Set this filter equal to your New Price on the left.
- Min/Max Trade-In Value – You’re basically already setting the trade-in value when you set the new and used filters. Testing this filter can be optional because of that.
- Min/Max Used Offers – This is very important. It lets you determine how many people you compete with on each listing. The caveat is that you’re only looking at the competition today. And can’t determine how many new sellers will be on the listing weeks later. Having a well set up repricing program is the best option for mitigating this risk.
- Min/Max New Offers – Selling new textbooks is super risky. So, for the most part, ignore this filter.
- Min/Max Rank – This is the current sales rank, which determines how fast a book will sell. The lower, the better I still add Keepa charts to my decision making on top of the rank.
- Min/Max Avg. Rank – This is an average rank that is taken across multiple points in time. Most keep this equal to the first Rank filter. But feel free to test moving it up and down.
What should you keep an eye out for when using eFLIP?
First off, make sure that you aren’t gated in whatever books you order!
There will be times when Seller Central tells you aren’t gated.
Then when you try to ship it in, you’re gated. Ha-ha w-t-flip, right!
If you end up gated in something and can’t return it send it over to your boy at reezy.biz.
At the same time, don’t get trigger happy and order a bunch of one copy either!
Old versions of textbooks can be replaced with new releases at any time.
So, make a spreadsheet of the books that you have ordered and test out a few copies at a time.
Those key points will save you from many headaches.
If you want to snag your 21 FREE days of eFLIP, you can sign up here.
Automating your book business.
Here’s the real beauty of eFLIP.
It can be easily outsourced and automated!
Essentially, you’re just going to make some training videos for your VA (virtual assistant) with Screencast-O-Matic.
Remember, there are no bad VAs, only lousy trainers (to a certain extent).
Be willing to filter through a ton of VAs and thoroughly test the ones that might be a likely fit.
The initial time investment in training, and systemizing will pay off in the long run.
Note: Don’t start outsourcing right away; you can’t teach it if you don’t know it first!
This video will show you how to hire a great VA quickly:
Note: You’ll need a Repricer <link> during the textbook season to catch the price spikes! If you have OCD, make your VA manually reprice based on your own rules. But it’s incredibly time-consuming.
If you’ve been selling books for a few weeks now and feel ready for eFLIP, get your 21-day free trial here.
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