November 2013 Financial Results from Amazon and eBay

Now that it’s December, it is time to share my financial results from November.  If you read my post with last month’s results, which can be found HERE, you will see that I set goals of reaching at least $2800 profit and have over 40% of sales be from FBA.  This was a great month for me selling online, and I far exceeded the profit goal.

We’ll get into the numbers shortly.  First, a little background on the time and efforts I put in this month.  For the month of November I worked considerably more on selling online than the previous month.  I would say an average of at least 7 to 8 hours per weekday, as well as usually a few hours on the weekends.  I took off from Wednesday at about noon through Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend.  I did do a little Black Friday shopping, but that hardly counts as work.  Thanksgiving was the only time I took any weekdays off.

I have been exploring many new inventory sources over the past month and the results are beginning to show.  I have been sourcing in retail stores, thrift stores, online, and recently purchased 2 pallets of liquidation merchandise.  I will be posting more about some of these sources in the future, but the point for now is that I am expanding where I am able to source inventory, and it’s beginning to show in my results.

November 2013 Financial Results

With that out of the way let’s get to the numbers. The numbers below are basically the profits that I am making for the month.  The profits are calculated only on items that have been sold and shipped during the month.  They were calculated by taking selling prices, minus all fees, minus all shipping and packaging costs, and subtracting the cost of the items.  This won’t be the exact number that goes on my tax returns as there will be additional deductions for mileage, cell phone, home office, etc.  However, these are costs I would generally be incurring anyway, so for simplicity I will be leaving them out of the calculations. 

excel breakdown - blog readySo the goal for the month was far exceeded! This is due in large part to building up inventory from previous months and having this inventory sell.  I believe a boost is also being seen as the Christmas buying season is getting into full swing, and buyers are spending more.  I definitely put in significantly more effort this month, and it is displayed in the results.  I probably set the goal far too low, I didn’t really know what the potential was and as a result set the goal too low.

One other factor is that I had several very profitable sales during the month.  There were 3 items that I sold during the month that I made over $200 profit on, and there were another handful that I made over $100 on.  These sales definitely helped the final results!

Here are some screenshots from my amazon and ebay accounts to show the total sales that I had for the month to provide some backup documentation, click to enlarge:

November 2013 Amazon Sales
November 2013 Amazon Sales
November 2013 eBay Sales
November 2013 eBay Sales

Also, here’s a screenshot from my amazon seller dashboard that shows some additional sales number:

Sales Snapshot as of 12/3/13 @ 3:30AM
Sales Snapshot as of 12/3/13 @ 3:30AM

Overall, I am very excited about these results.  This is only my 2nd full month selling online full time ( I quit my job in September, you can read more about it HERE if you are interested in how I jumped into online selling full time) and profits at this level would put me at an annual salary of just over $62,000 per year.  This is more than I was making in my job, and it is while doing something that I find much more enjoyable! Obviously, there is no guarantee these results will continue, but I believe with continued hard work I can achieve even greater results.

Goal for December: In theory December should be the best sales month of the year as people are buying presents for Christmas.  With that said and based on the past month’s results my goal is to exceed $6500 in profits for the month, which would be an increase of a little over 25% from November.  I am going to work to continue the portion of my profits that are coming from FBA.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below!

Click here for the results from December 2013 – $8993.97 in profit in my third month!

11 thoughts on “November 2013 Financial Results from Amazon and eBay”

  1. Yes that’s what I was after. Thanks for the swift response. I’m limiting my early spending to the 3 times rule and with a sales rank of 70000 or lower (toy section). My aim, and I hope it’s realistic, is to turn over £12000 in my first 12 months with FBA alone so I’ll let you know how I do. Thanks again, Paul.

    1. Good deal, and no problem! That sounds like a great goal for your first 12 months, definitely keep me updated on how it goes for you.

      Best Regards,
      Ryan

  2. Hi, if you don’t mind me asking, could you say what the cost value of your inventory was for this month for FBA alone?

    I’ve just sent my first 8 boxes to FBA over here in the UK but I’m working with limited funds, I’ll maybe be able to put £500 into product over the next 5-6 weeks. I know there are many other factors than the amount of money I put in but I’m wondering how much product I will realistically need to have a turnover of around £1000 which is around the kind of numbers your getting for your FBA in this month.

    I’ve read your blog inside out for days, it’s inspiring me, keep it up.

    1. Thank you for the kind words! Sounds like you are off to a good start as well. I don’t have exact records for what was spent just in November, as I was tracking the profits only on items that had sold and shipped. I began tracking cashflow in January 2014 (I know I should have been sooner). I would estimate that I spent about $1750 in November on new inventory, and the inventory that I sold this month would have had roughly the same cost. I generally see my profits for the month equal about what I spent on the items, as in general I am looking for a 100% ROI on items I buy to resell. Let me know if this answers your question, or if you have any additional questions.

      Best Regards,
      Ryan

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  4. How do you determine which items are good for fba? I have the profit bandit app but i still don’t know the best way to determine items to buy.

    I know how to determine for eBay and its probably similar but I want to know how you determine what is a good buy.

    1. Hello Adley,

      How I determine what to buy for FBA is a little bit different than eBay, but is similar. I will do a post on this next week as it’s a little lengthy to explain here in the comments.

      -Ryan

    1. Thank you! Currently I am trying to sell basically anything I would sell on amazon using the FBA program, I am finding it to be a very convenient program. When in the stores scouting inventory I use an app called Profit Bandit. It shows the current prices the item is selling for on amazon, the current sales ranks, and a few other details. It’s $15, but I find it to be money well spent.

      -Ryan

        1. Hey Jim,

          Yes you now need a pro merchant account to use Profit Bandit. Up until a few weeks ago you didn’t, but something changed on amazon’s end and now you need the pro merchant account.

          Best Regards,
          Ryan

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