Which retailer shall I target next?

L[Deactivated] on 17/04/2021 - 15:01
Last edited 17/04/2021 - 16:10 by 1 other user

So basically, I am a retail arbitrage type of dude looking for my next prey LOL.

I have been given my walking papers from a company I have been targeting for a few years, and I'm looking at where to zone in on next. I have a few ideas but I thought I might attempt to recruit the wisdom of OzBargain at large and basically crowdsource the optimal new host.

I am mostly interested in Bunnings, Repco , Big W and QBD books. But am very open to other suggestions.

Big W cancels all my online orders (we have a past), so this makes it tricky to go commercial scale with them (though far from impossible). Repco really wants me on deck but I don't love their clearance lines and I kind of want to diversify out of just automotive stuff if for nothing other than keeping my shopping exciting (I do it for the adrenalin rush of finding bargains too LOL). Bunnings has no idea who I am or anything. I have only done very small stuff there.

How I operate is on the ground basically. First, I will study the clearance lines of the retailer. Then I will go around store to store and scope out what is happening on the ground. I will learn all the little intricacies of the company at a micro level whilst partaking in some small scale acquisitions as to justify my time in going around and such.

Over time I become a familiar face at the stores and they learn about why I am actually there. Then deals come to me, information comes to me about what is coming up for clearance etc.

So stores with alot of non online deals would be good prey for me. Stores with alot of inconsistency happening from store to store (this is actually one of the reasons why I chose Bunnings). And big stores where I can fly under the radar are preferred (because once Head Office finds out they generally send me a legal letter to stop targeting their outlets).

Yes, I do realize that this is mostly a place for individuals to get a bargain and not for commercial type buying. But I am going to be commercial buying regardless of OzBargain (and was doing so long before I ever joined here). Also, I am a person that is happy to share my treasures here. Over the past few years I have let millions of dollars in bargains pass me by quietly, because I wasn't on OzBargain. I either didn't have enough money to buy them all, didn't have enough space to keep them all, or just realized that I already have way too much stock that I haven't had time to list on eBay yet so the last thing I should be doing is buying even more.

For years I have looked on OzBargain and kind of laughed that none of the actual bargains and serious deals are ever posted here. Seriously, they are not. Most of the REALLY good bargains are gone instantly to people that target the stores and have insider knowledge about what is happening (friendships with managers and stuff). So shall the forum help me in my new quests, I shall help the forum by posting my treasures here as I see fit.

To be quite honest I am looking for the retailers that are most ripe for my strategy and ones where I can acquire massive amounts of stock very inexpensively using my methods.

Suggestions of which retailers, what you have noticed about how they operate, and why you think they would be a great target?

General Discussion

closed Comments

      • timthetoolman on 17/04/2021 - 21:27
        +18

        Thank you for taking time away from making millions to reply

        • Mechz on 18/04/2021 - 09:37
          +4

          I think you mean 'holding millions in stock'

  • kzrocky on 17/04/2021 - 21:18
    +2

    Thinking to vote this guy [MarksMarkdownMarket] biggest (profanity) on OZB.

    • Deridas on 17/04/2021 - 21:34
      +14

      There should be an emergency button on ozbargain you can break once a year to give an account an unlimited amount of negative votes for comments in a short period of time, which would be perfect for situations like this.

      This guy makes Broden sound like a saint.

      • apiecost on 18/04/2021 - 22:37

        OzBargain: The Purge

  • DoctorCalculon on 17/04/2021 - 21:21
    +4

    What the hell, OP?! What exactly is the point of your thread?
    You simply came here to brag. At the same time you insult us by calling us "simpletons".

    just realized that I already have way too much stock that I haven't had time to list on eBay yet so the last thing I should be doing is buying even more.

    LOL. By your own admission, you don't have enough space to keep your already overflowing junk, and you want to target more retailers???
    Who is the simpleton now, Mr Retail Arbitrage?

  • dylo on 17/04/2021 - 21:22
    +15

    This post is stupid and when that is pointed out to you then you quickly inform us you have a disability which should give you immunity from honest feedback and then proceed to call the community "simpletons". Really not sure what you wanted to achieve out of all this. If you want to make a go of it then succeed on your own, don't expect to crowdsource your business ventures here.,

    • DoctorCalculon on 17/04/2021 - 21:28
      +8

      And some serious snobbery here:

      For years I have looked on OzBargain and kind of laughed that none of the actual bargains and serious deals are ever posted here.

      This guy is so good (yeah right!), and yet posts here asking for help from the community that he belittles.

      • [Deactivated] on 18/04/2021 - 02:42
        -7

        Fourth time lucky, I finally replied to you! Yay! How does it feel?

        • DoctorCalculon on 18/04/2021 - 06:14
          +6

          So shall the forum help me in my new quests, I shall help the forum by posting my treasures here as I see fit.

          How is the forum working out for you so far? 😆

  • Brick Tamland on 17/04/2021 - 21:37
    +4

    If you got the ability to tie up a bunch of capital in stock and have heaps of cheap storage then it’s not a bad business. Pretty risky buying random stuff that no ones really wants though.

    • [Deactivated] on 17/04/2021 - 22:08
      -2

      TY.

      You minimise the risk by only buying for peanuts. Hence if half your products never sell, who cares? It just means you paid 2x peanuts instead of 1 per sale.

      There are many ways to check if your product is moving outside of the company you are targeting. ebay completed sales being the most elementary.

      I started again with basically nothing on Australia Day 2020. My income has compounded and compounded up. My stock likewise compounds up.

      I am shortly moving to a live in warehouse outside of Sydney. Holding costs would be no more than my cost of accommodation costs in Sydney. Hence the 200 square meter floor space will be essentially free so long as I don't mind living upstairs in the mezzanine office (which is fine by me).

  • plmko on 17/04/2021 - 22:06
    +7

    I am a person that is happy to share my treasures here. Over the past few years I have let millions of dollars in bargains pass me by quietly, because I wasn't on OzBargain.

    Such a generous person. Contributing to the community by leaving a few crumbs in the wake of your hoarding.

  • CalmLemons on 17/04/2021 - 22:11

    You know the best businesses are those that can be explained in one sentence.

    I make phones.

    I make cola.

    I make potato chips.

    Why not just become a retailer, who buys things at wholesale and sells the item to the end user. Sounds like a good business model, yes?

  • Narull on 17/04/2021 - 22:16
    +18

    Love how OP acts like a dick, edits things to try and not look like as much of a dick, mod changes it back to what it was so OP blames autism (which I'd place money on being either self diagnosed or complete BS), then OP starts insulting users here and already trying to hock his crap here as well.

    Just give it up OP, you're a dick who came to try and brag and no one is buying it or wants to 'help' you.

    You're a laughing stock and not laughing with you, laughing at you.

  • Dotaguy on 17/04/2021 - 22:19

    So if you've made just about 75k in sales over the course of a year what does that end up in terms of income?

    How do you manage the logistics of everything, with purchasing, posting and also stock levels etc?

    Assuming this is growing and might even get to the point where you'll be able to have a good lifestyle where you're not also living in a warehouse how are you going to expand and are you just going to keep selling random products that are sold on clearance from these retailers?

    I get that this seems to work, but it seems like an incredible amount of effort for not a lot of gain. Would it not be easier to buy stuff in bulk from China etc and then sell over ebay - for example, I saw a lot of guys bulk buying weights off of chinese sites in 2020 and re-selling on FB marketplace for decent money. This sounds like you're spending more time and effort on this than most full time jobs would be.

    So I suppose, if you ignore all of the above my actual question would be, do you see this project of yours getting to a point where you could make more than 108k per year in taxable income? This is apparently the average income for someone in Sydney according to a quick google search.

    • [Deactivated] on 17/04/2021 - 22:30

      As things stand now I need to wrap and post roughly 20 parcels per week for my $75k p.a.. I have enough stock to do nothing but that for at least 5 years. Wrapping and sending 20 parcels would take me a few hours. The only reason to go bargain hunting is to keep growing bigger and bigger.

      Also most of my stock is still unlisted. It will be a one off effort of a few weeks or months to list it all. Then my income would at least double. But maybe triple or more.

      • brendanm on 17/04/2021 - 22:55

        As things stand now I need to wrap and post roughly 20 parcels per week for my $75k p.a.

        Minus 10% eBay fee. Minus 3%(?) PayPal fee. Minus postage costs, as you seem to give free postage. Minus tax.

        $75k-$7.5k-$2.25k-$7.2k=

        $58.05k minus tax.

        I assumed $12 per package roughly.

        • [Deactivated] on 17/04/2021 - 23:15
          -3

          Yes but the hard work is done now. From $0 revenue to $75k. The hardest part is over.

          We can nitpick and crunch numbers all day. The $75k over the last year was not linear. The first months below average and more recently above.

          Just like month 24 will be alot better than month 12. It's climbing gradually.

          You forgot alot of other assumptions that you wouldn't know because you are not behind the steering wheel.

          1. Most of my stock remains unlisted.

          2. Even the stock that is listed is not marketed properly. It was a slap job not even any keywords yet. Some of it is listed properly. Some not.

          3. I can do promotions and sky-rocket my volumes if I need to. When ebay puts me on the cofunded 10% off my sales go crazy. And that's just 10% off. I could do 20-30% off constantly or more. I could double my sales volume even with current listings and take a small haircut on net profit.

          4. I go on holidays constantly. My ebay store gets relatively few sales during those times.

          You are determined to see me fail. But I am OK. If I wasn't doing OK why would i be constantly going interstate and buying up big?

          • brendanm on 17/04/2021 - 23:31
            +6

            @[Deactivated]: I don't care if you fail or not. You come on here and make big claims, which by all accounts are false. You then get called out. That's it.

              • downbythecreek on 18/04/2021 - 13:48

                @[Deactivated]: Wait, why was your 'proof' from 12 months ago if it's an 'everyday' deal? I'm sure you make some good pocket money selling the bogan trinkets you find on clearance, but I'd be very surprised if you can make this scale much more without having to hire staff.

          • nickj on 18/04/2021 - 10:25

            @[Deactivated]: "The $75k over the last year was not linear. The first months below average and more recently above."

            So your sales, which are all online from local stock you already hold, spiked from April 2020 onwards, and it apparently has not occurred to you that this is a one-off boost due to covid-19, because people were stuck at home or afraid to go out, and instead of saying "I had a very lucky windfall because of a very unusual situation where I had local stock AND there was a massive boost to online shopping", rather you're instead assuming "this is how it's going to be forever, and I should upscale this approach". I mean, what could go wrong?

          • Vote for Pedro on 18/04/2021 - 10:58

            @[Deactivated]: What’s your tax on gross profit p.a.?

        • No ONE on 18/04/2021 - 06:05
          +1

          $58.05k minus tax.

          Wrong mate. $58k is not his profit. It is just revenue. 20% likely the profit after eBay & shipping fees. So about $12k profit goes to his taxable income.

          • DoctorCalculon on 18/04/2021 - 06:21

            @No ONE:

            Wrong mate.

            How so? Revenue = Sales. OP is claiming $75K p.a. in sales from his one man operation.
            I don't see anything wrong with Brendan's estimations.

          • brendanm on 18/04/2021 - 10:17
            +1

            @No ONE: That's true, I completely forgot about his cost to acquire these treasures.

      • Dotaguy on 17/04/2021 - 22:57
        +1

        Right but if you've made so far 75k p.a., that's just revenue. What does that look like if you factor in expenses such as your time, cost of items etc etc. You're also assuming that the growth would be linear, if you list more stuff it doesn't necessarily mean you'll double or triple your revenue even if you quadroople your total listings. Finally, I guess the another thing to consider would be opportunity cost - is there a better way you could spend your time or even focus your efforts with your business to generate better revenue.

        Hopefully I'm not as negative as everyone else where, I just think that you need to be very careful with this sort of thing because this isn't exactly a "new" idea, and it's not clear if what you're doing really adds value beyond just the pure effort you've put in so far. I can imagine that the guys who run these stores who sell to you are more than happy to offload stuff they can't sell because it must be more than whatever they would get through their ordinary methods.

        What you're doing definitely isn't "arbitrage" and I hope this doesn't end poorly for you.

      • [Deactivated] on 18/04/2021 - 23:27

        I saw a dude at post office once with 2 large sack looks like small 100+ packages. Ask post Lady and say he comes everyday and have no idea what he sells. She say he been doing well over 5 years now.

        So 20 parcel a week, still have room to grow I guess.

  • randomusername2017 on 17/04/2021 - 22:35
    +4

    +1 to lock this topic to preserve comedic content before it degenerates down the keyboard warrior rabbit hole

    ~ feel a MMMeme coming on..

    • DoctorCalculon on 18/04/2021 - 06:26

      Should we call him the Broden Retail Arbitrage? 😂

      • No ONE on 18/04/2021 - 11:07
        +1

        Or just Arbitrager

        • taoz on 18/04/2021 - 21:42
          +1

          this is not arbitrage at all

  • djones145 on 17/04/2021 - 23:13

    mate u wasting ur time on selling products and making a few bucks

    flipping houses is the ways, buying clearance stock and selling on eBay is so 2020

    u can make 500k flipping houses in 3 months

    • Randolph Duke on 18/04/2021 - 12:58
      +19

      No one cares.

    • cashless on 18/04/2021 - 13:20
      +2

      Is it me or did I just see an ar$Ehole fly by?

    • MrPants on 18/04/2021 - 17:50
      +1

      I hereby challenge every single doubter on this thread to revisit in 12 months. Put it on your calendars.

      That's cute, he thinks he won't be banned for trolling in a couple of days and that we care.

      • rompastompa on 19/04/2021 - 13:48

        he won't be banned for trolling in a couple of days

        In Penalty Box. Expiry: 20/04/2021 - 08:49

    • sweepy on 18/04/2021 - 21:43
      +1

      revenue ≠ income

    • [Deactivated] on 18/04/2021 - 23:33

      Good for you, the fact is no really cares how much you make. Go enjoy your life, dont be doche. This isnt a competition.

      Plus revenues can be easily skewed, if you account all upfront/backend cost. 200k can go down pretty quickly.

      I guess you dont much returns/chargeback yet but this gonna happen. It may be small or big and may hurt but that business.

  • SickMyDuck on 18/04/2021 - 00:04
    +6

    I think you just take condescending to the whole new level, that is what I salute you. well, OZB is about sharing deal. I dont think anyone would be interested in your double income from this deal hunting. if u can do so, good for you. moving on…

  • askbargain on 18/04/2021 - 00:18
    +1

    Haha

  • spackbace on 18/04/2021 - 00:25

    Just need OP to buy a Mustang that doesn't go over 4,000 rpm and we can officially pass the baton from one **** to another…

    • ozbjunkie on 18/04/2021 - 09:33
      +1

      At least Slav doesn't call anyone a simpleton…openly…

  • CalmLemons on 18/04/2021 - 01:38

    Buy dogecoin.

    lol.

  • [Deactivated] on 18/04/2021 - 01:43
    +2

    we need more threads like this hahahah

    • carboncider on 18/04/2021 - 02:14
      +5

      All hail, bargain superstar

      • jv on 18/04/2021 - 17:01

        All hail, bargain superstar

        More like pawnstar…

    • Dave Bowman on 18/04/2021 - 02:34
      +20

      Perhaps you could target Chemist Warehouse and stock up on some meds.

    • Maz1 on 18/04/2021 - 02:57
      +2

      Is this guy okay?

      • Dave Bowman on 18/04/2021 - 03:11
        +13

        These are the grandiose ramblings of a man with NPD. No, he's not okay and I can only imagine the psychological torture he causes others in real life.

        • DoctorCalculon on 18/04/2021 - 06:42
          +2

          The OP is a complete fraud. We have all been trolled. He is here to stroke his ego.

    • Melencir on 18/04/2021 - 06:52
      +1

      Monologue suddenly reminds me of Maui from Moana, breaking into You're Welcome…

    • mapax on 18/04/2021 - 07:25
      +1

      T-trump, is that you?

      C’mon guys, now obviously to get it right he needs to include some jokes about himself, but imagine this being read with a comical trump accent and hand gestures and it is hilarious. Deserves a pos.

    • discostuuuuu on 18/04/2021 - 09:23
      +10

      Moved quickly to talking in the second person. I'm excited for the trajectory of this thread.

      I am everything you all wish you could be.

      I too wish to one day live in the office mezzanine space of a warehouse.

      • S2 on 18/04/2021 - 16:31

        Bravo. There are so many great replies on this thread. This one really got me.

      • Superjia on 19/04/2021 - 17:43

        hahaha, thats hilarious!

    • smartazz104 on 18/04/2021 - 10:54

      You could have just posted that you suck yourself off for the same effect as this dribble.

    • Ughhh on 18/04/2021 - 11:16

      Who hurt you?

      Or are you going to use a disability as an excuse again?

    • cashless on 18/04/2021 - 13:26

      Evil laugh. “I will take over the world and you will all bow to my superior bargaining power” more evil laughs
      Jeez, what a douche, why do I waste my time reading (and replying to) this crap?

    • downbythecreek on 18/04/2021 - 14:02
      +8

      But are you cooking your dinner and boiling your bathwater on a park BBQ?

    • skullster704 on 18/04/2021 - 15:09

      Interesting.

      Did you dream that strawman up in the shower?

    • sweepy on 18/04/2021 - 21:46

      this is incredible stuff

  • bongom on 18/04/2021 - 04:45
    +3

    Why would the OzBargain community worship someone that appears to have no self awareness of their abrasive personality?

  • Mikinoz on 18/04/2021 - 06:35
    +1

    This is definitely troll of the year stuff, if not king troll. Please keep responding and keep this thread alive. Its no high yield investment though……… but entertaining nonetheless

  • bloom on 18/04/2021 - 07:12
    +5

    I once got a mango tray on clearance for $5
    Which fruit market should I target next?

    • DoctorCalculon on 18/04/2021 - 09:17

      Which fruit market should I target next?

      You could try ALDI. Haha!

    • Logical on 18/04/2021 - 13:12

      Did you sell these mangoes individually for a buck each and quadrupled your money?

      • bloom on 18/04/2021 - 13:30
        +10

        You don’t believe me brah? I’ve got the biggest mango tray trade discount in Australia! I’ll show you my fruit bowl

        • Logical on 18/04/2021 - 16:26

          Eating/consuming/using the discounted bargain does not necessarily provide you with an income.

          What am I supposed to believe brah? That you ate the mangoes? Great! I love mangoes to, especially KP.

  • DryScissors on 18/04/2021 - 07:14
    +14

    OP is the kind of person to tell someone a story only to make himself look good, and then doubles down by saying “…and then they said. Mark, that’s the best idea I’ve ever heard, and I was like, thank you.”

    We’ve all met someone like this- zero self awareness, low self esteem, and misses the scent of their parent’s basement.

  • tasty-falafel on 18/04/2021 - 08:05
    -6

    Since noone is answering your actual question -

    Learn a bit of Python. It's fairly straightforward to build a script utilising the Beautiful Soup library that monitors websites and auctions for high value items.

    Specifically target big retailers and computer stores around Australia for items with high resale value - PlayStation 5's and high end GPUs are what I target. From a GPU perspective the most profitable are the nVidia 3080s and 3090s.

    In terms of resale for these items, you can fairly easily sell PS5s within a day or two for a 50% markup. High end GPUs even more, particularly due to the crypto boom at the moment. The latter might not last as long though as it's driven by ethereum mining which might not be possible in future.

    The other advantage to this is these items are fairly small - you can literally have over $100k worth of product sitting in a small room. You don't need warehouse space to be able to operate a 6 figure a year side venture.

    • serpserpserp on 18/04/2021 - 08:16
      +4

      In terms of resale for these items, you can fairly easily sell PS5s within a day or two for a 50% markup

      What garbage.

      • tasty-falafel on 18/04/2021 - 08:23

        What do you mean? A 50% markup is selling a $750 item for $1,125. Go have a look at the prices for PS5s on eBay, particularly those with bids. A 50% increase is still at the lower end of the PS5s for sale on eBay and one of the cheapest on gumtree (not including used).

        • serpserpserp on 18/04/2021 - 09:20
          +1

          Anything bidded over a 10-15% above RRP is being artificially inflated. They are "sold" and then relisted under other accounts.

          Easy to see when you see a long time account with 10-15 items for sale at inflated above RRP but only 30-40 feedback. Not a lot of conversions going on there.

          • plmko on 18/04/2021 - 15:00

            @serpserpserp: Yeah PS5 scalping is simply not worth it, if you consider the risk that someone scamming you would undo all your profits. May have been worth it prior to January, not now IMO.

  • johnno07 on 18/04/2021 - 08:11
    +2

    This is super (profanity) weird. OP are you not getting the attention you need at home?

  • j5ive on 18/04/2021 - 08:15
    +6

    You should go on shark tank.

    • lachhelix on 18/04/2021 - 08:46
      +1

      Could you imagine 😂

    • ozbjunkie on 18/04/2021 - 09:35
      +5

      Yes please. "You don't like my business model because I'm autistic" - I can see the memes generating themselves.

  • Hedgehog on 18/04/2021 - 08:20

    Suggest you either take your medication or get your dosage reviewed.

    Buddy, life is too short to be playing such silly games if in fact you are for real.

    You seem far to bright with too much time on your hands to be wasting your time and our time with this crap. Really, how did you get the idea that this is what OzBargain is all about?

  • MessyG on 18/04/2021 - 08:20
    +11

    OP reading all your posts you strike me as someone who is clearly motivated and good at business, but you also strike me as being very very isolated from your fellow humans (both in the way you write and in the fact that you have developed this business seemingly in complete isolation from colleagues). I honestly don't think you need help finding bargains, I would suggest that if you allow people into your life, and work on hard on relationship management (which is such an important part of business) then you'll really take off. I know you've got some store managers who call you but you've also burned some bridges there too and I really think you need to work on how you talk to and treat people. Frankly, hustling is easy. Relationship building and management is where it gets hard but I think you'd get a lot out of it.

  • zrmx on 18/04/2021 - 08:25
    +2

    Here's an idea: Coles and Woolworths end of day mark downs.

    Good luck.

  • Roasty1024 on 18/04/2021 - 08:57

    What's your schtuyle?

  • aimon on 18/04/2021 - 09:18

    I love how the listing photo says "Almost always Australia Post".

    "60% of the time it works every time" :)

  • Poor Ass on 18/04/2021 - 09:28

    1. Hope you are reporting the income haha

    2. Can I asked what kind of storage facility you have for all the stock? Do you have a big house, garage, shed?

    3. I don't think anyone will tell you where to target next because you'll just be another competitor in the market for people who do the same thing.

  • StingyBritches on 18/04/2021 - 09:30
    +9

    I too have a Master Degree in Hustling!
    I have $1,000,000,000,000 in stock sitting in a tiny room!
    I move bazillions each day!
    I laugh at all of you!

    Maybe I need a nap?

    • LookAtMeow on 18/04/2021 - 17:16

      I loved you in Chef Aid

  • Mechz on 18/04/2021 - 09:47
    +1

    Instead of buying junk markdowns you could have bought bitcoin at the start of 2020 and be much better off right now.

    • [Deactivated] on 19/04/2021 - 15:21

      Instead of buying junk bitcoin you could've bought dogecoin and been wayy better off with right now!

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