Full-Time Online Arbitrage: My Real Weekly Routine

1. What Full-Time OA Actually Looks Like

People picture full-time online arbitrage as buying stuff on a laptop all day. At $100K+ per month, you're running sourcing windows, shipment cycles, repricing checks, and cash flow reviews on a tight weekly cadence. You don't open a browser and start clicking.

I've been full-time in OA since 2022. Side-hustle OA is a different operation. Full-time forced me to build a repeatable weekly system.

This is my actual week. Real schedule, real numbers. For more context on how it all fits together, start at the full blog.

2. Monday: Building the Buy List

Monday mornings I spend 90 minutes going through leads. My VA team sources 6 days a week, so Monday starts with a full queue. I scan for three things: ROI above 30%, at least 15 units per month on Keepa, and net margin above $4.00 per unit after all fees.

I cut any lead that misses one of the three. Dropping the ROI floor on a slow Monday leaves inventory parked in FBA for 60 days waiting to clear.

I build the actual buy list in a spreadsheet: ASIN, supplier link, cost, net margin, units to buy, priority. Every line item has a number attached before I spend a dollar. To speed this up, read how to build an OA buy list fast.

3. Tuesday: Sourcing Session

Tuesdays are blocked for sourcing. Three hours, no meetings. SellerAmp, Keepa, and a browser full of retailer pages.

I focus on 2-3 store categories I know well: home goods, health, personal care. Going deep in one vertical beats going wide across 10. Five strong buys at $6.00+ net beats 20 questionable ones at $2.50 net.

For a breakdown of how much time sourcing takes at different stages, read how many hours OA takes per day. The time drops as your systems improve.

4. Wednesday: Repricing and Buying Decisions

Wednesday I review my repricer and pull a report on what hasn't moved in 45 days. I cut the price on anything at 60+ days. The margin on slow inventory isn't worth the wait.

I take $3.00 net today over waiting three weeks for $5.50 net. Holding out locks up capital I need for the next buy.

Wednesday is also when I buy from the list I built Monday. I've had 48 hours to sit on it. If it still looks good, I buy it. See how to use a repricer for online arbitrage for the full repricing process.

5. Thursday: Shipments Out

I use a prep center, so Thursdays are about verifying what's going out. I reconcile purchase orders against what shipped, check condition notes, and flag anything before it gets into an FBA shipment. Catching an error before the shipment leaves costs five minutes. The same error inside Amazon's warehouse means a support ticket and weeks to resolve.

Normal weeks I have 2-4 shipments going out. During Q4 that can spike to 8-10 per week. The prep center handles the physical work. My job Thursday is verification and making sure the numbers match.

Thursday nights I also run a free live training where I source and analyze real products from start to finish. To watch the process in real time, grab a seat here.

6. Friday: Cash Flow Review

Friday is numbers day. I pull my payout report, check what Amazon deposited, and reconcile against what I bought that week. This takes about 45 minutes and I never skip it.

I track net profit per unit, not revenue. A $40 sale that costs $28 in COGS, $7 in FBA fees, and $1.20 in prep fees is $3.80 net, not $40. Confuse revenue for profit and you'll think you're winning while you're falling behind. Read Amazon FBA fees explained for where every dollar goes.

I also flag any reimbursements I need to file. Amazon loses or damages inventory regularly. That money doesn't come back unless you file for it.

7. The Weekend

Weekends are for slower work. I review what the week produced, read about categories opening up, and plan the next week's sourcing focus. I also check in with students in The Scaling Society and prep for Thursday's training.

This is also when I do deeper research: new software updates, competitor pricing trends, any brand restriction changes that might affect my buy list. Sunday prep keeps Monday morning from turning into a scramble.

If you're building this kind of routine from scratch, the OA daily routine guide breaks down what a structured sourcing day looks like at the start.

8. The Tools Running Every Day

My core stack is lean on purpose. SellerAmp for deal analysis, Keepa for price history, a repricer running 24/7, and a VA team sourcing 6 days a week. I've tried adding more tools. It usually means more time maintaining them instead of buying inventory.

The gap between SellerAmp and the alternatives has closed. Tools like ScoutX, which comes free with InventoryLab, now handle much of the same deal analysis work. I walked through the comparison in a live session:

"It's doing pretty much everything that SellerAmp is doing when it comes to that sidebar. It's going to help you calculate your cost, whether it is small and light and stuff. And you know, you are going to have all the information you need." SellerAmp vs ScoutX | Finally Some Competition for SellerAmp? (Apr 2023)

For a breakdown of what's worth paying for at different stages, see the guide on the best online arbitrage software.

9. How I Read Keepa Before Every Buy

Before I buy anything, I check the Keepa graph. It shows price history, buy box ownership shifts, seller count after price spikes, and BSR trend over 90 days.

The pattern I watch for: a product that spiked in price, got flooded with sellers, then saw the price tank. That product is probably oversaturated. If the seller count drops back down and velocity holds, it may cycle. I walked through this pattern in a live Q&A:

"The price was at its peak pretty much at this point, then people tanked the price, and then we can see that pretty much two weeks after that the number of offers actually went up like crazy." LIVE AMAZON FBA Sellers Hangout | Online Arbitrage Discussion and Q&A (May 2024)

Those patterns show whether a product cycles or stays flooded. The Keepa graph tutorial walks through what each line means and what to act on.

10. What the Numbers Look Like Monthly

On a $100K revenue month, I'm looking at 20-25% net margin after all costs. That's $20K-$25K net. Some months are tighter, some are better. Q4 usually runs higher because pricing holds up when demand spikes and competition thins out at higher price points.

Cost of goods runs 55-60% of revenue. FBA fees are another 15-18%. What's left after that covers VA costs, prep center fees, software, and profit. Track these numbers weekly. Waiting for the monthly payout to calculate profit means you're already behind.

To see the path from a first buy to these monthly numbers, read how to scale Amazon FBA to $100K per month.

11. Common Mistakes Full-Time OA Sellers Make

The biggest one: treating every week the same. Q4 is a different business from Q1. The inventory depth you need, the cash you need to deploy, and the sourcing pace all change. Running Q4 like Q1 means missing the biggest revenue window of the year.

Second biggest: dropping your ROI floor when leads are thin. Going from a 30% ROI minimum to 18% on a slow week creates a cash flow problem 45 days later when that inventory doesn't sell. Bad inventory doesn't stop being bad because you needed to spend money.

Third: ignoring fee changes. Every time Amazon adjusts their fee structure, your margin on existing buys changes. I covered the most important changes in Amazon FBA 2026 changes. Missing an update has cost people thousands on existing buy lists.

12. Next Steps

If this is the schedule you want, start here:

• The Full OA Daily Routine - how to structure your sourcing day when you're starting out
• How to Build a Buy List Fast - the exact process behind sourcing at scale with a VA team
• Scaling FBA to $100K/Month - the progression from your first buys to a real monthly number
• Amazon FBA Mistakes to Avoid - the errors that kill businesses before they get traction
• Online Arbitrage Beginner Mistakes - common traps in the first 6 months that are easy to miss