In doing research, I realized that this is actually a great way to make money and have been watching a ton of Raiken Profits videos. There are a few other platforms which let you sell books (most of them are textbooks only) but Amazon FBA seems best.
His videos are funny, interesting, and definitely helpful....
This video, below, is about an hour long but it has a ton of useful information.
Good items to collect include: cameras, NetGear wireless, graphing calculators, DVD players, GPS systems, books, typers, etc.
Sourcing items can be done at: retail stores, thrift stores, online arbitrage, garage sales, tax sales, and pawn shops. But if a person is just starting out, first get things from around the house and buy from friends.
(Personally I think retail sounds the easiest. If there is a sale and all the ink cartriges are 40% off, then you go to the store and get as many as you are allowed to buy. Label them, ship them in a box, and bam. I feel like most yard sales would be a waste and that pawn shops are wayyyy to sketchy for a teenage girl such as myself.
Also, my family is quite into sales to the point that we will go into like a Old Navy and get like idk 18 items for like $1.03 including tax because my mom uses coupons and Old Navy cash she gets through using their credit card. I get embarrassed when she stacks discounts, but I wonder if I could get them to help me out with sourcing :) )
- Camelcamelcamel.com can be used to see what things used to sell for.
- Booksalefinder.com can be used to find book sales. The only ones I can think of off the top of my head locally are one Mother's Day weekend at a local college and one I believe annually at a middle school, both being quite inexpensive.
Rank is very important when looking to buy items. The key is to pick up low ranking items all day long. Buy low, sell high.
Also I have figured out that my area is also bad for sourcing because we live in a poor(ish) area. So while some people might give away $200 purses in richer areas, it would be really rare to find it around here at Goodwill or a yard sale.