This is my final “catchup” post, I promise to start writing daily updates from here on.  I’ve bogged down on training now, found yet another very short course on Retail Arbitrage from another reputable Amazon FBA coach/guru that I’ve been reading, but still 100% in on the Proven Amazon Course too.   Both courses are walking me through Retail Arbitrage right now, i.e. finding products sold in retail stores that are so underpriced that I can buy them retail, send them to Amazon, pay the shipping and related Amazon fees, and still make a profit of 25% or more.   I wouldn’t have believed this was possible before, but it seems it is and it’s the recommended starting point per the PAC course (walk before you try to run) so that’s what I will be pursuing to start.   The benefit is I don’t have to commit to large minimum order quantities that private label selling could involve, it seems easier and faster to test a product before I start ordering larger quantities and it’s a good way to learn Amazon FBA on a limited risk basis, which Jim Cockrum promotes.    

My concern with Retail Arbitrage is whether it’s a path to the income I want.   The “scalability” model the courses teach to give this model optimum income potential is to find these products, prove their profitability via actual sales on Amazon, then outsource the purchase and shipment to Amazon using local staff/help so I can move on to finding the next product.  Will it work?  Sounds reasonable and there appear to be plenty of success stories but we’ll see.  

One thing is for sure and I like this:  It will take time, these product niches are not easy to find and like anything worthwhile, I can see it will take persistence, determination and sacrifice in the short term to find niches I can build in for the long haul.  That’s a path that makes sense to me and matches my life experience in anything I’ve ever achieved.