TIE #042: How I've Made $119,607 in Profit on Amazon This Year (while hardly working)

My November 2023 Amazon business update is here.

Dec 02, 2023

Apparently you hate money. If you didn’t, you’d be using Rakuten every time you shop on websites like Walmart and Target to save money.

They have paid me over $13,400 for things I was already going to buy for my one-person business:

They are also the reason this post is free to read. Sign up here and get $30 for free after your first use.

I have been documenting how much profit my personal Amazon business makes in this newsletter for almost 3 years now.

While running an Amazon business was never a dream of mine, it is what laid the foundation for me to leave my full-time job and then reach financial freedom at a young age.

In late 2023, an Amazon business is still the best option if you want to accomplish something similar.

This post is #35 of this series, you can read post #34 here.

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My Amazon business has three branches:

Branch 1: Non-fiction book arbitrage (read here if you do not know what this is)
Branch 2: LEGO investment sales (read here if you do not know what this is)
Branch 3: All other online arbitrage

Depending on the time of year, they all rise and fall independently from each other.

It is not your average arbitrage business.

I specifically target the highest profit margin products possible while aiming to work as little as possible.

The game I play is efficiency, I do not play “make the number go up” simulator.

November was a slower month (by design) but it wasn’t as slow as September or October.

Let’s dive in to the numbers:

Total Sales: $6,621.68
Items Sold: 86
Cost of Goods + Fees: $4,565.23
Total Profit: $2,056.45
Hours Worked: ~5-10
Average Profit Per Item: $23.91

Total Profit for 2023: $119,607.97

Now that the holidays are here, business has picked up slightly. This revenue is mainly off-season book sales.

We sold a few LEGO investments, but not by design. Any that sold were $20-40 above the lowest price available.

Here is one example:

Why customers chose my listing over the cheaper listings, I’ll never know (but we’ll take it).

I want to also take this moment to point out that anyone not succeeding with Amazon is not trying hard enough.

Julio is a member of my private mentorship group (linked at the end of this post) and lives in Costa Rica.

He has done $3,200 in revenue on Amazon so far, meaning his profit is likely around $600-900:

$600-900 is right around the average monthly salary in his country and he has only been operating his business for 3 months.

I can already tell he is about to make some life changing (or should I say rat race escaping) money over the next few years.

If he can operate his business in the US from abroad, you can do it from wherever you live too.

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Looking Forward

LEGO investment sales will pick up a bit as we get closer to Christmas.

You should expect continued batches “buy” alerts and a few “sell” alerts to come through in December if you are a paid member of the newsletter.

The winter busy season for books will be in full swing on January 1st, which means some incredible numbers should be expected for the January update.

As for 2023, it has been an amazing year regardless of what happens in December.

$120,000 in profit is more than I ever made as an engineer and I made that money while working less than an hour per day on average.

What I do with my Amazon business is not “special”.

It is a simple process of doing what other people are just not willing to do (like waiting 12+ months to sell a LEGO set)

If you can stomach what others won’t, you will earn like others can’t.

That choice is yours and I can’t make it for you.

Have a question? Leave it below and I’ll get to it ASAP.

When you are ready, there are a few different ways I can help you:

If you don’t have capital to play with, I recommend starting here:
1. Textbook Flipping Mastery - My in-depth guide on how to start a high-margin but simple Amazon e-commerce business.
If you do have capital, I recommend starting here:
1. LEGO Investing Mastery - My in-depth guide on how to start a long-term “buy, hold, and sell” LEGO investing business.
If you want to tackle both at the same time and get the most value possible, I recommend starting here:
1. The Conference Room - My private mentorship community that includes the two guides above, for free. Pay once and stay a member for life.