New Series: FBA Friday Question #1- When did you start selling FBA?

I got a lot of great questions about FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) and I'm excited to dedicate a new blog series to answering your FBA questions. (to the best of my ability anyway!)

I'll start with first things first. I was trying to remember when I first started selling with FBA.  I've sold on Amazon since I was in college, mostly used college books and then teacher books. Then I had to go part time at my teaching job about 4 years ago, when little man was around 2 years old. I wasn't planning on going part time and was scrambling at the last minute to make some extra income. I found this blog http://apronthriftgirl.typepad.com. I read the whole thing in 1 day and it literally changed my life!
I started thrifting for profit the next day. I started out selling only Merchant Fulfilled (MF) but kept hearing about FBA and how great it was. I had a lot of inventory listed MF for about a year, and then I decided to try FBA with a few items and see what all of the fuss was about. My first box had 5 items in it, I think they were all toys. I had been selling them MF for over a year for about $12.95. I had 5 or 6 of them and had only sold 1 or two the whole time. I sold out within a day of hitting the warehouse for $24.95 each.  I haven't turned back since and Amazon FBA is a big reason why I am able to try working from home full time this year. Last year I sold as much as I made at my day job, this wasn't all profit, but I know that if I had the time to devote to it I could at least double it, which would make my take home pay as much or more than my teaching salary.

I currently have a little over 1000 items at FBA and about 20 items I still MF, mostly those that I think might sell better on Ebay. Most items I look at sell for a much higher price on Amazon. I sell in mostly toys, grocery and health a beauty, but I will scan pretty much anything and if it makes a good profit, into the basket it goes.

I love FBA for a few simple reasons. I can list an entire car load, box it up and have it ready to go in 1 really long day, or a few short days. It would take me months to list that much on Ebay. I can source anywhere, anytime and with my kiddos in tow. I listed over 5000 items last year and when it came time to pay the long term storage fees I only had 3 items that qualified for long term storage fees (or had been in the warehouse for 6 months or more!) I marked them down and sold all but one of them, which I had returned to me and sold on ebay a few months later. I can be on vacation and make money, I can be in the hospital having a baby and make money. I can be 6 months pregnant and unable to walk without a walker and still make money. During the not able to walk time I had to close down most of my ebay business because I couldn't walk to pack up packages. My FBA business was still going strong.

next in the series:
The Basics: Getting Started on FBA