Last June I took a road trip to New York City and attended two book sales and several thrift stores. I already did a couple blog posts on the results of the book sales; however, I want to see if it’s possible to collect enough inventory on the road to pay for all expenses. That includes lodging, gas, food, inventory, UPS inbound shipping etc.
My trip started in North Carolina, and I went up to New York City and Boston. Then headed back down to Baltimore, Richmond VA, and home. The trip was 11 days total.
Here are the 12 thrift/book stores that I went to:
The Roc, Petersburg, VA
Goodwill, Petersburg, VA
Goodwill, Rocky Mount, NC 27804
Goodwill, Richmond, VA 23294
Goodwill, Ashland, VA 23005 (see receipt)
Goodwill, Bellmawr, NJ (see receipt)
Boomerangs, Cambridge, MA
Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, MA
Salvation Army, East Wareham, MA
Goodwill, Chicopee, MA
Goodwill, Fredericksburg, VA
Thrift Store, Wilson, NC
And the two book sales…
Byram Shubert Library in Greenwich, CT.
Poughkeepsie Library in Poughkeepsie, NY
All Road Trip Expenses
12 Thrift/Book Stores: $289.82
Greenwich Library Sale: $339.11
Poughkeepsie Library Sale: $371.94
Food/Entertainment: $309.25
Lodging: $870.52
Gas: $153.55
Tolls: $100 (approximate)
Camping: $70
Train to NYC: $21
Cab: $10
Total Expenses for Trip: $2396.84
Revenue after First Five Months (6/18 – 11/17) (after all Amazon Fees)
12 Thrift Stores: $861.52
Greenwich Library Sale: $1239.89
Poughkeepsie Library Sale: $1165.50
Totals
Total Revenue for Road Trip: $3266.91
Total Expenses for Road Trip: ($2396.84)
Total Profit: $870.07
Conclusion
So it looks like I made $870.07 in profit after the first five months. Although, I'm happy with the results from this trip, I think there can be some improvements for future trips. Here are some ideas to keep the costs low:
1. Stay at cheaper motels
2. Do more camping
3. Stay with friends or family
4. Keep a cooler stocked with food and drinks
5. Any other ideas?
If you would like to review the detailed stats of the individual sales on Amazon, please click here.
Awesome -thanks for posting! I often try to buy inventory while I travel but never really keep records of my results. I am going to try to totally pay for a few trips with FBA in the next few months as well.
Hi Mike,
Yeah, I always knew it was possible to pay off all travel expenses with FBA profits. My goal is to track everything to see how long it takes to make a profit. Good luck with your travels!
Nathan
I do a lot of this as well. The thing I add is to buy enough stuff to flip local as well. I keep a list of brick and mortar stores that buy books or other media. The best trip so far was a pallet buy for $200 left TN with $200 Cash Went to OK and back. Sold $1500 in books ended up with a 7 day trip lots of amazon inventory and $300 cash back home. If I am out scouting my daily goal is to cover gas,food and product and come home with more money than I started with, I also Mystery shop post offices and Goodwills, Stores, Resturants to cover expenses.
Hi Charles,
That’s a good idea to sell local as well. I used to sell penny books at “Half-Price Books” in Madison, WI when I lived in Illinois. I haven’t tried that in a while though. How much money do you make Mystery Shopping?
I do really good with one company,they do a lot of Post Office and Post Office competion like Fed Ex and UPS.I sell on a little on ebay so I match my shops with my ebay sales. Thus I get paid to mystery shop and then they pay to ship my ebay sales. These shops pay from $10-$50 and I get paid back for the shipping cost as well. I do some other type as well the the above is my bread and butter right now.
Great post! Just a question as an FBA newbie, couldn’t you get a tax write off for some of those expenses as well?
Hi Roger,
Yes, I will be writing off all those travel expenses and the miles as well. So, I will be saving some money during tax time. I also just hired a bookkeeper which really helps a lot! I’ve been trying to do it on my own for 6 years and that was a mistake.
Did you just want to go on a trip or did you do it to make money? Because that’s a very skimpy profit if you were trying to make money. I assume it was just a fun vacation!
Hi Darla,
I wanted to see if it was possible to travel for free. I think traveling for 11 days and making enough money to pay all those expenses was pretty cool. Especially since I was able to buy all the inventory and ship it to Amazon while “on the road”.
Don’t forget “wear and tear” to the vehicle as an expense… that’s a lot of miles!
That is true. However, the current tax deduction is 56.5 cents per mile. So, I will be able to write off $1186 in mileage for that trip.
Thanks for a great post, Nathan. Very encouraging about paying for travel and the tax write-offs for mileage is important.
Charles, if you don’t mind me asking, where did you learn about mystery shopping?
Great info and updates, Nathan. Thanks!
Your thoughts about cost-cutting are a good start. Only one suggestion: Do an overnight test and deliberately “rough it” a little to find out what it’s like for you. That will give you ideas for how to tailor things for you personally, and set up a plan that can save a lot of money on a longer trip. It takes you from planning based on theory to planning based on experience … the same concept as other business practices, and one that really pays off.
Michael, thanks for your comment. That’s a good idea to rough it out and see what’s it’s like. I almost spent the night in my car in Boston when many of the motels were full. But I chickened out and spent $140 at a bed and breakfast instead. It was the only vacancy in the area.
missing [as far as i can tell] from your calculations is the cost of getting all the inventory purchases to the Amazon FBA warehouses. Can you add those? The full costs has to be deducted from net profit upfront since that’s what happens in real-time.
Thanks for your comment, Ken. I added those costs in the Thrift Store and Book Sale expenses.
I use AAA to plan all road trips and miles traveled. I use portable gps for cheapest car rental. Do not book hotel room without a discount anyway you can get it. Try to avoid hotel stays in Major cities on Saturday night. Get free continental breakfast at the hotel whereever you stay. Do not pay for auto insurance with rental Co. use your coverage on your credit card company if they offer it. Print out before trip Amazon book sales ranking 1 thru 100 books. Goto Javizt center book expo 2014 in New York City many free book given to me free. I turned over within one week 95 % to my online
from New Jersey to New York onr day trip. I resold 95 % within 1 week.
Thanks Jeff. You have tons of good ideas there.
Use car rentals with discounts, avoid toll roads and use portable gps and use free continental breakfast at hotels and avoid Saturday nights hotel nights stay when traveling.
So after 5 months you made ~$900 profit + a ~$1200 tax write-off for gas. If you were in a 33% tax bracket your write-off is worth ~$400, so together with your profit you made $1300 for 11 days of work/travel/wear-and-tear on self and car, or about $120 a day – a very long day, I’m sure. And you got to camp out….. That translates into a $3,600 a month J.O.B. – and this is after 5 months. Unless you’ve still got a ton of valuable and salable inventory left over, uh…what’s the big deal? To me this just shows that not everything that CAN be done is worth doing….
Thanks for your analysis. I don’t recommend anyone traveling for long periods of time to replace a job. For me, this was a vacation, and I wanted to see if I could pay for all the expenses via FBA. I worked an average of four hours a day on this trip. I also enjoy going to book sales, so I really don’t consider that work.
If you’re ever in Atlanta, they have auctions via the US postal service. You buy them in bulk so they can run you a few hundred to a few thousand (depending on the load), but I’ve heard a lot of people have found some true treasures. Anything that gets lost in the US mail and isn’t claimed for a certain amount of time gets auctioned off. I’ve been to a few and its great! The only thing is they can’t guarantee the quality or condition of anything.
Thanks for the info regarding the Post Office Auctions. I’ve been hearing about these for a long time, but I’ve never went to one.
Other expense reducing ideas can be to sleep in car…but most of us understandably don’t wanna do that…alternately, schedule your product hunting trips to places that are in the ‘off season’ = lower hotel rates. ALSO, most don’t realize you can HAGGLE for a lower price atmany motels/hotels…usually independents are more willing to haggle but major chains will too. Don’t be confrontational but rather, empathetic and 3rd person the request…(I clarify below).
Example conversation…
ME: Hi! How’s it going? (take control of the conversation)
Them: Good
ME: I’m just in the area getting quotes for rooms…what’s your cheapest 1 night rate for tonight?
Them: $120 (let’s say)
ME: Oooooh…hmmmm…..Do you have Triple A discount?
Them: No
ME: (thinking)….a Business traveler discount?
Them: YES or NO they restate current price or a reduced price…
ME: (same reaction) oh…hmmmmmm…(now we third person it) You see, I’m in the area for 3 nights…my boss is a cheapskate and has given me a very limited travel budget…(this way the argument isn’t with YOU but with your BOSS, and more importantly, you aren’t asking for a lower price by arguing the room isn’t WORTH the asking price (which can offend the desk person and make them stand their ground)…he (your “boss” has me out here kinda ‘bird dogging’…if I can get a rate he likes, there will be repeat trips to this area…any way you can help me?
Them: Will often offer a better rate, let’s say they go $100
ME: That’s great…hmmmm…see my boss gave me a budget of $80….that’s a great rate but i’d still have to take $20 out of my own pocket…could we split the difference and go $90?
Them: OK $90.
OR if they don’t negotiate or come down not enough, simply take out a notepad and say Ok XX dollars…my boss is so out of it sometimes…I have to check a few more places…(and go to leave…sometimes they’ll stop you and offer a lower rate rather than let you shop OR if they let you go, you can always return later if you find nothing better).
Think of it this way…IF in 4 minutes of diplomatic haggling you can save $30-$50, that goes directly into PROFIT on your bottom line and $30-$50 in 4 minutes equates to $450-$750 per hour!
Sometimes you won’t get a better rate but often you will! AND you don’t know unless you ASK!
Another , pack a hot plate and get a room w a fridge…this allows you to buy food at grocery stores which is much cheaper than eating in restaurants!
Great tips! Thanks for the example conversation. It sounds like you really have it down to a science. I’ll have to try that out next time.
Try http://www.airbnb.com for less expensive places to stay in larger cities. You can sometimes do well with Priceline at business/airport hotels on the weekends when there are fewer business travelers. That way you can stay somewhere nice and not in a roach motel or your tent when its cold outside. I always check out hotels on Tripadviosr before getting a room.
Thanks for the recommendations. I just heard of the airbnb a few months ago. I think it’s a really good idea, and I’ll have to try that out the next time I’m in a big city.
You could always plan ahead, looking for specials on hotels and meals near where you will be staying. Also, check around different parts of town, some areas may have significantly lower hotel rates for the exact same chains.
Also, maybe find someone who wants to frequent similar places and split costs. Maybe a picker wants to go to the thrift stores with you and find some treasure while you are going through the books.
Thanks for your ideas, Randall. I appreciate it.
Dude don’t do cheaper motels. cut back on everything else, but when your traveling and go cheap motels it can be a dang nightmare.
I love you blog and your vids. I just found you and will soak you up for most the night. Thanks for the help.
Thanks! I’m glad you are finding the information useful.
Yes, I agree about the cheap motels.
-Nathan