Introduction
Back in October, when some resellers and I were wondering what would be the hot Christmas items besides the SNES Classic – we came up with those Fingerlings and these Luvabella dolls. They were running pretty hot in October (prob other resellers buying them up,) so I picked up 5 of them (3 blondes and 2 brunettes) from Target. They were $100+tax, but I used some GC’s, so they were about $100 all in cost for me.
Selling them
I was able to sell 1 for $140 gross on ebay back in early October. However, what I didn’t realize was that these boxes were pretty big (maybe 12x12x8 or so.) Thus, shipping came out to nearly $15. Figure fees were about $20, so margin was really slim. I was able to sell 2 for $140 and then raised my price to $150. The third one sold, but the buyer immediately cancelled. And I never sold another one since.
Returning them
Since I bought them at Target (wasn’t a coincidence,) I was able to return them around Christmas time due to there 90 day return policy.
Lessons Learned
You win some, you lose some. Shipping really hurt the margins. Maybe I could have moved them on FBA; I didn’t even explore that option.
These things were a total flop on AZ and prices tanked to ~$85 or so before the 30%+ AZ fees. I only had a few so I dumped them. Returned the ones that were returned to me, and I had over a 50% return rate too.
How’d you do with Fingerlings? My 10 year old daughter suggested I sell them earlier this year. She also suggested Hatchimals while the shelves were full, “squishees” this spring, and a couple other kid fads I could have gotten in on in time. Gotta start listening to her.
Did you get into the LOL balls…Glitter and Pets mainly?
I saw the big LOL balls at TRU once, and thought it’d be too big of a play (shipping costs)
You could flip the smaller balls for 60-70% profit if you could find them (Pets and Glitter) and they shipped out first class which was nice. Yeah the big ones would probably be better sold local etc.