Lazy Scanner

Quick Story….

Every Sunday morning I take my toddler son to Wal-Mart and Target, so that my wife can sleep in (cue the cheers, because I’m a super-duper husband).  We do our weekly grocery shopping, and I’ll do a quick eye-scan on items I already know and love for the purpose of FBA.

Well, on each of these “every Sunday’s,” in the grocery department, I see this one item.  I picked it up several months back during an excited bit of scanning, and it did not have a bar code on it.  I do not know why or how this is possible, but i set it back down because I was too lazy or too rushed or mostly too lazy to type the name into my phone.

Fast forward 5 months, I was there again, but this time I had plenty of time and the son was behaving.  So I typed it in.

Holy crap.

It had a rank of 3k, and a two pack sold for 24.95.  Cost?

Less than $3 each, aka less than $6 total for the 2 pack.

So I bought 6 boxes, all they had, and sent in the next morning.  They sold within 8 hours of arriving at 24.95, bringing me back roughly 11.60 in profit per 2 pack, after factoring shipping and fees.  Which is, you know 200.51% according to my inventory lab.

I did another test run the next week, same results.

So, yesterday?  I went to 4 Wal-Marts, and last night I made 45 2-packs while I watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  I have a shipment I’ll finish up today, and they’ll be in route by tomorrow morning.

And guess what? I have a new replenish-able, and I’ll happily and willingly ride it out as long as I can.

Some takeaways, please and thanks:

• Do not be lazy! I couldn’t scan easily so I skipped an amazing item for 6 months
• Multi-packing can be extremely lucrative
• There are possible items everywhere, including just below your nose
• Just because an item is low in cost, it can still provide large profit

Anything similar ever happen to you? Any takeaways I forgot to mention?