Not unless your into cheap knockoff made in china stuff. More on reddit.com

I never had any luck with this business model. The problem is as soon as an item goes on clearance its on clearance nationwide so you are competing with every other flipper out there who thinks the same thing as you, buy the item and list it. This drives the price down on the items to where they are selling at the same price they were in the store. Between fees and expenses you are making literally no money. You would have to have a guaranteed $30-50 profit on each item after expenses to make it worthwhile. I've actually found clearance items that I could buy cheaper on ebay than in the store because all the flippers would go to the clearance rack, buy everything on the rack, list it on ebay and then be desperate to get rid of it all because it wasn't moving, so they would take a loss on the items just to get rid of it. Yes I have actually seen flippers clear the rack over here, insane, but I've seen it. Overall this benefits no one but the buyer looking for a cheap item to buy. More on reddit.com

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IMO, it really depends on your level of sourcing. If you just scan garage sales and occasionally clearance isles, you can get away with using the amazon seller app. But if you are doing serious retail arbitrage, i would highly suggest getting a scanner and better software. The Amazon seller app is nice considering it's free. But to check all of the necessary criteria can be very time consuming. Hear me out here, because I know a lot of people will argue that it's easy & fast enough. It is true that it doesn't take long to get your info using the Amazon seller app. But the extra few seconds it does take, can add up quickly. (In this comparision, let's assume both the methods are using internet connection). If you use a scanner and paid software, you get pretty much all the info you need at one time. You scan, and the info pops up. Takes one second. Let's say using the Amazon seller app it takes you 4 seconds to scan the UPC, match the product, click the FBA offers, or new/used, etc. I think that's a fair amount of time. Sometimes just scanning the UPC can be a time suck. Now, 4 seconds is not very long if you aren't scanning many items. But if you are scanning a lot of items, those extra seconds add up. So I could run the numbers here, but any first grader can tell you it takes 4 times longer using the amazon seller app. So if you scan 1,000 items today, it would take you 17 minutes with a scanner v.s. over an hour with ASA. So I believe it depends on how much you plan on scanning. If you plan on going to booksales, a scanner is practically a necessity. Because there is usually immediate flipping competition. And someone with a scanner(especially one that has downloaded data instead of internet), will be going through the books 10x's faster than you. Think of that on a greater scale. By the time you have scanned 100 books, they have scanned 1,000! So yes, most people can get by with the ASA. Frankly most people probably should use it, because it is free and very helpful. But if you are reselling on a large scale, consider your time vs cost of scanner/software. Sure there is cost associated with the scanner/software combo, but for some, it is definitely worth the money. If it saves you only 8 hours of work a month, isn't it already worth it? As far as which scanner to use, I can't attest to which is best, as I have only used one. I use the scanfob opn-2002. It works great with my galaxy s2. Yes I said galaxy S2!(what can I say, I'm cheap. And it does everything I need it to do ATM). I love the discreteness of it. Especially at garage sales, because some people take it personal if they know you plan on reselling their stuff. Which I do not understand BTW?! Do you want to sell your crap or not? Who cares what I do with it afterwards. Anyway... I can hold the scanner with my hand closed so you that you can not even see it.So when I am in a retail store, I set my phone in the basket. Then I can pick up the object, scan it, and peek over into the basket at the info without even touching my phone. So you can't even tell I am scanning unless you are really looking for it. Well this turned out wayyy longer than I planned. Time to get some junk up on eBay. Hope this helped. More on reddit.com