May 2015 Retail Arbitrage Strategy

Retail Arbitrage May 2015

US Holidays and Sales:
May Day (May 1^st)
Cinco de Mayo (May 5^th)
National Teachers Day (May 6^th)
VE Day WWII (May 8^th)
Mother’s Day (May 10^th)
Memorial Day (May 25^th)
Victotria Day (Canada, May 25^th)

Mother’s Day is probably the most important holiday this month (from a retail arbitrage perspective, and for so many other reasons!). This year it falls on Sunday the 10^th, and if you haven’t already been making preparations you may have missed your opportunity this year. On Monday the 11^th store will begin discounting all of their Mother’s Day merchandise, so it would be good to be mindful of these sales. You could either buy Mother’s Day specific items and hold them to till next year (CamelCamelCamel.com is helpful in understanding an items sales history over the years), or for those items that are not stamped “Mother’s Day” you may be able to buy and sell now (which is ideal).

According to the National Retail Federation:

That’s a significant ATS (Average Total Spending, $225.87), it would be foolish not to want to get in on that. For Mother’s Day gift ideas, check out last month’s Retail Arbitrage Article (April 2015).

I haven’t personally done any preparations for National Teachers Day over the years, but this year I’m going to keep my eye to the market to see if Educational related items get a sales bump.

The month wraps up with another semi-major holiday, Memorial Day. Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the U.S. For remembering the people who died while serving in the armed forces. There can be some excellent Memorial Day sales that may be worth sourcing. Here’s a sneak peak at the types of sales that you can expect to happen this May 25^th (thanks to memorialdayweekend2015.net):

This is not an exhaustive list (pretty close), but it should definitely get your Profit Sourcing juices flowing. Last year Memorial Day marked a significant spending spike for Americans as the economy continues to recover since the recession of 2009. Here is a graph of consumer spending in America every May since 2008.

It’s encouraging to see spending up, and I’m hoping that it translates to a good month in sales on Amazon. Here’s another excerpt from the same website, analyzing May 2014:

These figures could indicate that the national retail sales events are decent as well as the economy improving.

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Other Products to Be on the Lookout For this Month

Patio Furniture: The new models are hitting the sales floor which could mean that retailers are slashing prices on the old.

Party & Picnic Supplies: The season of outdoor ears is on its way, be think of which products you can be sourcing and selling to meet the demand.

Vacuums: New vacuums come out in June, which may mean that local and nation retail stores will be motivated to get rid of the older models that they currently have in stock.

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Things I sold this time last year

I thought it would be neat to share with you some of the items that I sold last year from May 1^st to May 12^th (which was Mother’s Day 2014):

Bought for $35 and Sold 10 of them in May for $81

Bought for $20, Sold 15 of them for $51

Bought for $6.25, Sold 6 of them for $16.47

Bought for $10, Sold 10 for $35

Bought for $20, Sold 3 for $65

Bought for $4.91, Sold 3 of $11

Bought for $5 after Christmas, Sold 15 for $24.95

Bought at the end of Jan. for $75, Sold 3 for $180

Bought online in April for $4, Sold 5 for $13.50

Bought for $4 after Christmas, sold 4 for $13.77

Hope you’ve found this article helpful! Be sure to check out all of my other posts and also be sure to sign up for my monthly online newsletter so that you don’t miss any of the future monthly retail arbitrage posts.

Have a great month, Happy Profit Sourcing!

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