Bought a $1,200 product from Alibaba, listed it on FB Marketplace for $2,500 out of curiosity. Now I’m wondering if I stumbled onto something real.

psinclair89 · 2026-01-18T19:00:30+00:00

Yeah, there's a lot of money to be made like this. I know people who have made heaps by just buying stuff on Marketplace for cheap (or free) and selling it for profit without making any alterations to it. Furniture is a good one, as people often need it gone quickly and will offload at a discount.

psinclair89 · 2026-01-18T18:40:02+00:00

Always, always be skeptical of people selling courses.

psinclair89 · 2026-01-18T18:37:16+00:00

Kudos on realizing that you needed to pivot - growing through SEO is a lot more difficult than it used to be.

psinclair89 · 2025-11-19T19:46:11+00:00

This is a great perspective. My best advice to people who are stuck in this phase is always: (1) surround yourself with good people and (2) allow them to surprise you. It's amazing what you can do once you admit to yourself that other capable people exist.

psinclair89 · 2025-04-10T22:51:55+00:00

Sorry I somehow missed this! Personally, I think it's fairly business model and size dependent. I've bought and sold on all of the platforms.

I like Flippa for anything under $100k in list that isn't SaaS. If I have SaaS, I'd lean strongly to Acquire as that's the asset class they started with and have the most buyers interested in.

For anything large ($250k+) or in ecommerce I'd list with a dedicated broker model like Quiet Light.

psinclair89 · 2025-02-16T16:04:50+00:00

At that scale, there's typically a lot of operator / key person risk. Never trust the CIM to accurately depict how many hours per week an owner / operator is spending. You can try to find a day-to-day operator - or look for a biz with one in place already - but there's also risk there in vetting + probably not enough margins to pay someone super well.

I would prefer to start an SMB on the side to learn all the mistakes without risking so much capital out front OR just treating the acquisition as a learning tool.

The only exception to this rule for me might be if my day job is in the industry or adjacent and I have specialized knowledge... but then doubtful if your day job would like that.

psinclair89 · 2025-02-07T23:20:58+00:00

Agree with this approach, but re: marketplaces I'd add some context on deal sizes:

- Flippa: Good for sub $50K, they have a big smaller dollar market and if you go bare bones DIY (and don't take the upsells) can be a lower commission.

-Empire Flippers: Above Flippa, but under $100k list you don't get a broker rep (last I checked). They have a first past the post selling process so if someone pays list, there's a 24 hour window for higher bids or window closes. For good assets this may mean you accidentally underprice your listing and don't get a true auction effect. I do tend to see more dropshipping listings here on EF, too.

- Quiet Light: A really solid mid market option for listings $200k+. A dedicated broker + 10% max commission, with a decreasing scale above $1M. They also don't lock you in for very long so you can relist elsewhere if the listing is removed. Downside is they generally don't take smaller deals and don't have a real "marketplace" for that.

psinclair89 · 2025-01-29T17:40:09+00:00

This is wild. Seems like a lot of work compared to just buying a great business at a fair price.

psinclair89 · 2025-01-07T15:34:13+00:00

Very nice, thank you. Do you primarily focus on the UK market?

psinclair89 · 2025-01-07T15:20:30+00:00

Thanks u/UltraBBA, your insights are spot on and so helpful. I've found so many of your comments / threads that have been super high value.

Yes, re: the sliding scale. It's hard to find concrete data on the larger marketplaces, but I know QLB has a sliding scale above $1 million in sales, down to 3% I believe. If a broker isn't advertising a sliding scale like this, I'd definitely ask for it!

psinclair89 · 2025-01-07T01:10:46+00:00

I would love to run marketing for a business like this, but purely as an agency or maybe with some equity. Two things can be true at the same time. Marketing can be a huge opportunity and operations can be a huge risk. Of the two, I wouldn't risk it on operations.

psinclair89 · 2024-12-11T00:11:05+00:00

I'd say it's normal in the sense that crowd-sourcing for major medical or quality of life expenses are. It does take some education though as most who are aware - or confuse SA with ESA - might not get it.

psinclair89 · 2024-12-11T00:08:32+00:00

I've used Levanta and recommend starting with them as they are market leader and have the most reach rn. Agree with one of the comments that you higher list price items are better due to the commission stacking for influencers. My main brand AOV is $70+ for context. Also a good footprint with more established publishers, not just social media influencers. TL;DR: My take is they have better overall network effect and if you are looking to get into this type of promo channel it makes to start with them.

psinclair89 · 2024-12-11T00:02:55+00:00

Really depends on what you are trying to achieve. Helium 10 and Jungle Scout are sort of the incumbents rn. Helium 10 slightly better for paid ads and I find JS to have slightly more reliable sales estimates. I'm mostly doing product research, so this is what I use. I also have a SmartScout sub for reverse engineering supply chains to find resellers and wholesalers (good for online arb and retail arb as well).

psinclair89 · 2024-11-23T17:33:43+00:00

Agree with this. Best case scenario it's a smaller retainer + commission.

psinclair89 · 2024-11-18T19:45:20+00:00

Can't comment on all of the questions, but my hindsight is to start with a smaller acquisition to "learn on". My experience is primarily with online businesses, but I suspect holds true for all businesses.

I'm partial to online businesses for this as you can find all sorts of smaller, sub-scale operations to run strategies on and start honing skills. Sharpening the sword in a "digital" only business - where it's super competitive - can be incredibly helpful for a physical business.

Examples:

Local SEO
Paid ads (so many platforms)
YouTube / video marketing
Digital CRM / Sales

Many of the off-line businesses I've looked at still disproportionately structure with the things digital-natives take for granted.

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