One of the biggest challenges to succeeding at online arbitrage is finding products at a low enough price to make a profit on the flip side. If you’ve gotten started with your FBA business, you’ve probably spent some time wandering through the big box stores, looking for deals. But it all seems like a bit of a gamble, doesn’t it? What if the deal you’re getting isn’t as good as it looks? Well, fortunately, there’s a very useful tool to help you find fantastic deals.
BrickSeek is a very easy-to-use service that functions much like a search engine. It’s used not only by business people like us, but by savvy consumers too. You can actually sign up for free, but I recommend investing in one of their premium plans. That gives you access to more and better deals that will go further in expanding your ROI. We find this service to be a very useful tool. BrickSeek has two premium levels: Premium Membership and Extreme Deal Hunter. Check out the screenshot below for the details.
So, BrickSeek is designed to seek out the best prices. It finds both online deals and in-store discounts, and can even let you know if the item is in stock at any of nine stores, including Walmart, Target, Lowe’s, Office Depot, Macy’s, The Home Depot, CVS Pharmacy, Staples and BJ’s. Used in conjunction with other tools, such as Amazon Seller Central’s FBA Revenue Calculator, it can help you to confirm quickly whether an item is worth your time and your investment.
Once you’ve gone to the website and logged on, you can use the search bar, or browse through the offers that BrickSeek presents to you based on your previous searches.
The search bar is relatively simple. There is a little drop-down menu that allows you to choose if you’re searching by product or by deals. I always use the deals option, as my purpose is to find discounts. I also like to keep my searches very broad. I might search for a single word, such as ‘toys.’ I’m not interested in something specific. At least not at the start. I’m interested in finding deals to make money.
Once the results are presented, you’ll see items presented with the discounted price, compared to its MSRP, and a little banner telling you how much savings you’re going to get if you buy. Notice in the picture below that the top-right of each item shows the store where the offer is valid.
Looking at these results, it seems like I’d be getting 70% off on the first item. That’s the “Fisher-Price Bright Basics Bundle, 5 Classic Toys Set.” That looks like a healthy profit margin, so I’m going to click on that item. Here’s what you see when I do:
Next, I’m going to click on “Check Inventory.” This is what pops up:
You’ll notice that at this point, you have options to refine your search a little. You can search by SKU or UPC codes, you can change the zip code and you can even choose how you want the results sorted.
Clicking on “Check Inventory” here gives you the actual results. See below:
Here are three of the results that came back. I’ve left off the majority of them because they all say ‘out of stock.’ But, as you can see, one store has six of them in stock. If I go there now, I can probably clean them out. Of course, before I do that, I’d better do a little more research to see if this item is really going to make me a profit! The questions I have to answer are these:
The first question is very easy to answer. Simply copy-paste the item title into an Amazon search bar and hit enter. Then click on the item. The price will be prominently displayed.
The second question will require a little more effort. But there are a lot of online tools to help you answer it. Even Amazon Seller Central has their FBA Revenue Calculator, which is completely free. You can just plug in all the numbers and go. The challenge with free tools like these is that you have to figure out all the fine details, such as shipping costs, and enter them manually.
There are a lot of other great tools out there, too. Many of them are paid, but worth the investment. One such tool is RevSeller, which gives you a sort of Heads-Up Display on Amazon item pages. This tool allows you to plug in your supply price and immediately see your ROI.
Here are a couple of tips for success with BrickSeek. First, sign up for a premium membership. If you have a serious arbitrage business that you want to grow, then this tool is worth the investment. With a paid membership, you’ll get more and better results. Secondly, to be successful, search BrickSeek everyday. Deals are always changing. New ones arrive and old ones disappear. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get a 100% ROI purchase on your first day. In fact, I’d schedule a certain amount of time each day to spend researching for product sourcing using BrickSeek and your other tools. It’s a lot more efficient than driving around to all the box stores, searching their clearance shelves.
So, here’s the takeaway: BrickSeek is a fantastic tool that can undoubtedly help you find great deals. We find it to be extremely useful in sourcing products for online arbitrage. But to use it effectively, you should definitely take advantage of other online tools and do exhaustive research before making purchases.
Click here to sign up for a new account at BrickSeek!
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