How to Make $1,000 by Christmas — part 3
It’s time for a Christmas hustle! Thanksgiving just passed, and we are fully into the holiday season.
How are you going to fund holiday gifts for friends and family?
What about the extra spending that naturally happens this time of year on holiday parties, events, travel, etc.?
Or, taking advantage of the amazing sales for yourself on Black Friday and Cyber Monday?
You need a holiday hustle!
For me, this has been eBay arbitrage for years and years.
I’d literally do this for a month or two at the end of the year and it worked like clockwork.
In part 1 and part 2 of this series, I talked about utilizing two different money-making strategies to raise some holiday cash.
In part 3, I’m going to take it back to my roots and go over how the eBay arbitrage model works.
This is the 3rd way you can raise $1,000 by Christmas in my series of how to make $1,000 by Christmas (in 5 ways).
Let’s go!
What is eBay Arbitrage?
Arbitrage is about taking advantage of price differences in the market to profit.
Retailers and business owners do this in many industries.
- I do this with website flipping
- Pawnshop owners operate this way
- Retailers like Walmart, Kohls, and JCPenney’s do the same
Buy low, sell high!
For example, you source an air fryer on Walmart.com for $30 on sale for Black Friday.
On eBay, this air fryer sells for more than 2X, at $75.
So, you source it from Walmart at $30, sell it at eBay for $75, and keep the difference as your profit, $45, before fees!
Another way to look at it…
- Buy air fryer from Walmart — $30
- Sell air fryer on eBay — $75
- Profit = $45 ($75 minus $30)
That’s exactly how it works!
Where to source goods for arbitrage?
Any retailer, from 5 Below to Walgreens, Target, Bath and Body Works, etc. has the potential to be used in arbitrage.
This works so incredibly well!
Some businesses do this exclusively all year round as a full-time business!
Have you ever seen a short supply of a product sell out and then sell online for 4X the price?
This is a form of arbitrage!
Like the color-changing Starbucks cups that broke the internet a while back.
They sold at Starbucks for $20, for example, and people were reselling them on Amazon and eBay for $60 and customers were buying them, snapping them up left and right!
Where you source your goods from doesn’t matter as much as the deal you can score.
What to keep in mind with eBay arbitrage
With that said, you do want to keep these things in mind…
- Domestically-source goods, if possible (international sources can take a long time for shipping)
- You want to consider fees for fulfillment, processing, shipping, listing, etc. to understand the true profit potential
- Sticking with one or two products is best when starting out, so you don’t get overwhelmed with all the different product deals floating around in the market
Can you do arbitrage online only?
Yes!
This is how I did it!
While you can go in person and walk the mall or retail stores to find goods to source, doing it online is more efficient.
How much money can you make from online arbitrage?
A lot.
Seriously.
I’d usually only do it long enough to raise $300 to $500 and then use that exclusively to buy holiday gifts.
But, when the pandemic happened, I started a little microbusiness with arbitrage and sold $7,500 worth of goods in the first 4 days on eBay!
And again, sellers do this full-time to earn a very handsome living.
How to start?
First, pick a product to source.
I’d probably begin by checking out the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales. Look at some hot products that may be good to flip in this arbitrage model.
- Small appliances (like blenders, hand mixers, air fryers, etc.)
- Linens (like curtains or microfiber sheets)
- Consumer electronics
These are just a few examples.
Next, head to eBay to check out the Sold pricing.
The Sold pricing is the key here.
Because you can list your product for any price under the sun but, will it sell?
You want to be competitive, and the best way to do that is by checking out past sales history for that product.
- Click on More Filters
- Checkmark the Sold Items box
So, for the color-changing Tumbler from Starbucks, here’s what the Sold history looks like…
This tells you the actual price buyers are paying!
Gold!
I usually price my items just under the average selling price so I can get a quick sale!
Then, set up your eBay listing. And when your item sells, make the order with your fulfillment source and direct ship to the customer!
What are the drawbacks?
This works based on the availability of your source goods.
For example, if you source a $40 blender on Black Friday weekend and list it on eBay and then it sells out before you can dropship it to your customer, you can find yourself in a pickle.
If it’s a name-brand item, which is what I tend to stick to, you can look for other sources at a discount.
For example, the original item (sold out) was $40 but, other options are:
- $45 same brand blender from Sears
- $55 same brand blender from Amazon
- $48 same brand blender from JCPenney’s
If you’re not using arbitrage software, this can be hinderance, as you can see by the example above.
It’s one of the pain points of doing this process manually. That’s why I say to stick to 1 to 2 products at first.
Bottom Line
eBay arbitrage is one of the ways to help you reach $1,000 by Christmas! This is a side hustle I have personally done and have experience with.
You’ll like this if you’re looking for an online-only side business you can run yourself that doesn’t require a team or a startup budget, you’re an excellent researcher and you understand how an arbitrage model works.
Is this a side hustle you’d try?
Why or why not?
Black Friday Sale! 40% off EVERYTHING with code BLACKFRI23 in my Gumroad store (High-ticket affiliate marketing, Content creation, TikTok, Pinterest, Website flipping, etc.)
