As someone who’s been selling through online arbitrage on Amazon for about 2 years now, I’m facing a dilemma and would appreciate your insights. Lately, Amazon seems to be actively removing the buy box for sellers if the item’s price is significantly higher than on other websites. This strategy of Amazon complicates our ability to forecast profitability.

The main issue here is the lack of clarity from Amazon regarding the maximum price threshold before they decide to remove the buy box. This uncertainty makes each purchase a risk, potentially leading to razor-thin margins, breaking even, or even losses. I’ve purchased products before that seemed promising only to have Amazon remove the buy box until I brought it down to a price that led to a loss.

Given these circumstances, I’m questioning the feasibility of continuing with OA on Amazon. How are you all managing this situation? Do you still find OA on Amazon to be a viable strategy?

Eager to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Hey everyone,
I'm getting more into online arbitrage and wanted to ask, what websites do you use to find good deals for reselling in the U.S.?

I know the obvious ones like Walmart, Target, and maybe Walgreens, but are there any underrated or niche sites you’ve had success with?

Would love to hear what’s working for you lately!

I'm new to the Amazon FBA process and have been watching videos on how to find the best deals on products. It seems to be a manual process of finding items, in addition to sourcing discounts codes to get the best deals on products.

Is there a tool out there that helps to identify products that have the greatest sale value?

I've been heavily thinking about the future of online and retail arbitrage, especially with Amazon's evolving policies, and I'm starting to wonder if these models are being actively phased out or becoming too risky to be viable.

Here are some of my major pain points and concerns:

• Proof of Ownership/Inventory Loss: This is a big one. If Amazon loses your FBA inventory (and let's be real, it happens), a retail receipt often isn't considered a sufficient invoice to prove ownership and get reimbursed. It feels like we're increasingly at Amazon's mercy here.

• IP Complaints & Invoices: Getting hit with an intellectual property complaint (even if it's baseless) is a nightmare. Without a direct invoice from an authorized distributor, it's incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to defend yourself. Receipts just don't cut it.

• New Stolen Goods Policy (Effective 6/30): I just heard about Amazon implementing a new stolen goods policy on June 30th. While I understand the intent, I'm really concerned about how this will impact arbitrage sellers. Does anyone have more details on this and how it might add another layer of complexity or risk?

I see so many YouTubers still promoting retail and online arbitrage as paths to making millions. While I admire their success, I'm struggling to reconcile that with the increasing difficulties and risks involved.

So, my question to the community is: Are online and retail arbitrage dead or dying as sustainable business models on Amazon? Or am I just missing something crucial?

Would love to hear your experiences, strategies for navigating these issues, or if you've shifted away from arbitrage and why.

Thanks in advance for your insights!

What was your start up capital?

How long have you been selling on Amazon?

What is your monthly net profit?

How long did it take for you to start seeing profit?

How did you scale your business?

Do you still have a full time job? Is it hard to juggle the both?

If selling via OA and wholesale do you regularly just send items straight to the prep centre instead of your own venue? Please explain your reasoning. I’m asking because whilst it’s “fulfilled by amazon” for a reason I’ve noticed a lot of people on YouTube still store items in their own property or warehouses. Why’s this the case?

What do you like an dislike about having sell via online/retail arbitrage and wholesale?

Is there something you wish someone would’ve told you before selling on Amazon?

Many thanks!

Is online arbitrage sustainable? I recently started, and so far, it's going well, but I always see people speaking down on it and saying to switch to private label. Could you live off online arbitrage or at least make 50k a year from it?

Why do online arbitrage sellers get such a bad rep? I started doing this about 6 months ago and it’s turning out to be surprisingly profitable.

But I’ve seen someone call OA sellers “the dying breed of amazon”

Why is that? Just curious.

I have just started doing Retail and Online arbitrage just a couple weeks ago, 100% FBA, I barely invested $150 and did over $600 in sales with a 20-30% profit. I don't understand why everyone on reddit says it's not worth it and that people doing videos of arbitrage are fake?

My only limitation at the moment is not having more money to invest in more products, but this will come with time. I find profitable products everyday, both online and in retail stores. Everything I tried to sell sold in less than 10 days. Am I lucky? Am I tripping? I can only think if I had 10-20x more money to invest I would be making 10-20x more. And that would be fucking amazing..

Anyone there making a living from arbitrage? I can't wait to quit my job and work 100% on this, I am really excited.

Are there any OA sellers on here who wouldn’t mind sharing what their margins are?

I ask because I keep seeing people online post huge #s in sales, but they rarely ever speak on margins.

I understand 98% of the time it’s just hype to sell their course, but I still can’t help but wonder what the actual profit is, because sales seems to be so misleading.

I’m not knocking anyone’s hustle, just interested to see if it’s viable with dedication and time spent sourcing/learning.

What do you find to be the best strategy for sourcing OA items? I have used manual and reverse sourcing and Tactical Arbitrage.

I found majority of items with TA but I find it is very hard to find good items that don’t tank for a few months before even coming close to my asking price.

I make sure the keepa looks good and steady price and everything, but I think the issue might be everyone else is seeing the similar results through the search database and items just start ranking.

I have a professional seller account, FBA, and I am starting with retail arbitrage. No products ever listed yet. Few questions:

• I purchased a lot of Christmas items 75% off at local retail stores. Some of the Walmart products have the Walmart name, logo, and price printed right on the packaging. Can I still sell these?

• I purchased hundreds of boxes of Christmas lights, all clear and white so hopefully they'll sell all year, but various sizes and counts. How many should I send to the warehouse for my 1st stock? Is it worth it to just send them all? Not sure how much storage fees will be. -If Amazon itself is a seller of the same product I'm selling, how will this affect my sales of that product if I match Amazon's price?

THANKS IN ADVANCE!

is there any truth to this? is online arbitrage with amazon fba a legit business? or will you get suspended soon after starting?

Hi there, I’m wanting to start selling through Amazon fba but trying to figure out what option is best. Can anyone tell me their experiences, pros/cons with Arbitrage and private label? I was originally going to start with private label but after some research maybe online Arbitrage would be better then switching to PL? Any help is appreciated!! Thank you!!

Is retail arbitrage still viable in 2025? I just opened my account a few days ago and everything is gated, and I can’t really get any invoices. Are there any ways to get ungated other than invoices?

I’d appreciate any help. I didn’t create my account with the intention to source in retail but I’ve always thought about it.

Hi there! I know people are asking same questions over and over again, but I'll really appreciate getting some real world experience answers.

Just found out this business model which is tempting for a beginner like me.

I am from Europe and planning to start Online Arbitrage FBA with prep center in the US.

Realistically what kind of revenue is possible to be processed by myself in a long term without virtual assistant and possibly adding automation tools like tactical arbitrage, repricer etc. I understand I have long way till I reach this stage, but still I need some insight on what I could expect and if it's worth investing my time and money into this kind of a business. Till now I've spoken with chatgpt for all of my questions and watched tons of videos and tutorials, but they are presenting it a bit too sugary to be true in my eyes. Also I've read that ungating is a huge blocker for newbies. I would love some guidance about it aswell.

I have many more questions but let's keep these for now.

Thanks in advance!

Just sent my first shipment to Amazon for fba. Thankfully only about 10 items that I found at Walmart/tj maxx. I say thankfully because when I initially scanned the items to check selling price/fba fees, my dumbass saw the fees for fbm….not fba. Long story short, I’m going to lose like $1 on every item except 1 thing I got at Walmart. Going to profit maybe $15 on that.

Cheap lesson but I am worried because I spent like 4 hours sourcing these items and scanned hundreds of items in 5 different stores and those were the only ones that made sense. But little did I know, they actually didn’t, because it was the wrong fulfillment method. So I only got 1 profitable item in 4 hours?? That’s insane. Anyone have any tips or stores they like sourcing at? Hope someone gets a good laugh at my mistake if anything haha

Can anybody tell me their average profit they make from doing online arbitrage?

I used to FBA years ago as part of a program called DropShip Domination, but it's been several years and my eBay account is far more established now; and I've only been using it for years now...Which do you find to be a better selling experience/profitable/safer to retail arbitrage stuff on now-a-days?