In this solo YouTube video, Amazon seller Eman Los Angeles recounts his two‑month attempt to purchase an Amazon FBA business roughly half the size of his own. He begins by sharing his own Amazon performance (about $75k monthly revenue, recent profit dip due to supply‑chain pressures) and the rationale for seeking a smaller FBA brand (confidence in scaling and lower price). He walks through the primary marketplace he uses—Empire Flippers—explaining his filter criteria (price ≤ $500k, ≤12 SKUs) and how the site calculates valuation via average monthly profit multiplied by a “multiple” (typically 30‑60×, varying by niche and growth trajectory). He highlights a key friction: Empire Flippers does not allow competitive bidding, so the first buyer to meet the listed price secures the deal, which caused him to lose a $200k opportunity. Eman then contextualizes why deals are scarce: aggregators such as Thrasios and other institutional investors have raised hundreds of millions and are aggressively snapping up any FBA brands, not just million‑dollar listings. Their deep pockets are inflating multiples, and he predicts a near‑future correction as more capital chases limited inventory. The video shifts to forward‑looking trends affecting both buyers and sellers: (1) PPC costs are expected to surge, but reliance on ACOS will diminish in favor of building Subscribe & Save enrollments; (2) manufacturing challenges persist with rising raw‑material prices and congested freight, prompting a strategic pivot toward U.S. manufacturers for those planning an exit; (3) Amazon is poised to dominate e‑commerce, relegating Shopify to a brick‑and‑mortar support role; (4) content about FBA acquisitions will proliferate as aggregators continue buying brands, making “building‑and‑selling” a lucrative goal. He concludes with practical advice for prospective buyers and sellers, urging them to act quickly, consider supply‑chain diversification, and focus on Amazon‑centric growth if they aim to sell. Overall, the video blends personal narrative, marketplace mechanics, valuation insights, and macro‑level industry forecasts to inform Amazon sellers contemplating FBA acquisitions.
Chapters
Hey, how's it going YouTube? This is Eman Los Angeles, and for the past 2 months I have been trying to purchase an Amazon FBA business. And if you watched any of my previous videos, you guys already know I am an Amazon seller. I have been selling on Amazon for the last 3 years, and these are currently my numbers that I do on Amazon. As we refresh it, you can see the last 30 days I have around $75,000 of revenue. Obviously revenue does not equal profit. But for these 30 days, I am actually down 11% because logistics, supply chain— you guys all know what is going on if you produce your products overseas. We're having a hard time actually keeping in stock, and you know, these elevated prices and, uh, shipping and freight are not helping out either. But I thought by purchasing an Amazon FBA business that's about half the size of mine was going to be very, very easy, especially because I partnered up with an investor where we're going to be purchasing, uh, actual Amazon FBA businesses that are about half the size of mine. So people that are going ahead and generating right around $20,000 to $35,000 to up to $50,000 of revenue every single month. And boy, have I been wrong. So in this video, we're going to go through the entire process of trying to evaluate businesses what websites that I go ahead and use, and why I have not been successful at purchasing these businesses because it is driving me crazy because you would be surprised of how fast these businesses get bought up. And I'm also at the end of this video going to tell you some of the top trends I see happening. So if you are an Amazon FBA seller, you're going to want to know these trends. And if you're considering purchasing an Amazon FBA business, I think this video is going to be for you as well. But before I get started on this video, I would really appreciate a like on this video and a subscription to my YouTube channel because as a small YouTuber, that's the only way I know how to grow. But why has it been so difficult to purchase Amazon FBA businesses? Well, I think the biggest factor is that there's now companies like Thrasios that are companies that are just here to acquire Amazon FBA brands. They have invested and raised so much money from institutional investors that they are sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars and their job solely right now is just to acquire as many Amazon FBA businesses that they can. And Thrasher's is not the only actual company that is doing this. There's so many others. But the reason why I focused on companies that are half the size of mine is one, I have the confidence that I can go ahead and grow it. And 2, most of this institutional investor money are looking for companies that are on the list price of $1 million and up. But the actual website that I currently use right now is called Empire Flippers, and we'll go ahead and turn it on right there. If you guys don't know this, there's other sites, but Empire Flippers is mostly focused on Amazon FBA businesses, and I have been very happy with the services and my rep that have been provided in this whole selling process. And as you can see here, I have my filters on for any businesses that are $500,000 or lower and only have a SKU count, which is products, of no more than 12. Because I don't want to have to go ahead and deal with 12 different manufacturers or products or whatnot. I would rather have a business that has maybe right around 10 products currently where we still have the opportunity to scale out their categories. And you might be wondering, how do you go ahead and price your business? Well, on average, what you go ahead and do is you see 3 different columns there. You see a price, you see the average monthly profit, and then you see a multiple. So what Empire Flippers does is they take an average as far as what your average monthly profit has been for the last 12 months. So in this case here, this individual had a profit, monthly profit of $10,937. So from there, they are multiplying their business by 43 times. It means that if you turn this business on autopilot, you didn't come out with any other products or expand or do any type of different marketing for this business, you will receive your money as an investor back after 43 3 months, right? So I've seen this multiple change. You can see that some of them here are at 30. This one's at 43. I have seen some all the way up to 60 times multiple. And it really depends what niche you're in and what your sales revenue has been for like the last 12 months. So if they see a big trajectory in the upside, that means people and investors are willing to pay a little bit more because they see growth in the future, as opposed to you see declining sales or stagnating sales. People are not willing to pay a higher multiple for that. And how the process works with Empire Flippers is that every single Monday there are lists of different businesses that are for sale. This could be Amazon FBA, Amazon Associates, but what I like most about it is they kind of center around Amazon FBA as a whole. And what ends up happening after that is if you are pre-approved for a certain range, you can unlock these listings where you're able to schedule a phone call with the seller themselves. And Empire Flippers already has an Excel sheet with all the financials— what does the product cost, what shipping rates? What other services are you currently using? And what is your take-home profit margin? So if you have a Jungle Scout or a VA or Helium 10 or other services like that, it's already included and they discount that from the actual profit you make, um, every single month. And I feel like the biggest reason why I have been struggling to acquire a business— and I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing— is that Empire Flippers does not do a bidding war type of system. So if they listed a a business for $500,000 and there's so much interest and people are willing to pay so much more than $500,000, you're kind of asked out as a seller. So let me reiterate that. If there's 10 different buyers that are interested in purchasing one business that is worth $500,000, a buyer cannot offer more than $500,000. That means the very first person to wire that money and purchase that business on Empire Flippers It's yours. So again, now I know these last 2 months to have my money already sitting at Empire Flippers. I even had a situation just this week where I was the very first one to have an interview call with the business and we were getting ready to wire the money in to purchase this business and some individual did not even want to speak to the business owner, bought out the business in front of me. And this was a $200,000 business and I was devastated because I knew that I can grow this business and niche out. To 10x what the right now value is on that business. And the truth of the matter is that I thought this type of situations only happened to businesses that were listed at $1 million and more. But the thing is, there is not a lot of Amazon FBA businesses for sale. So companies like Thrasios can't just rely on million-dollar businesses and hire. They are now going ahead and trying to purchase any businesses they can. And As far as trends that I see going on, you notice that the multiples now are at 30x or all the way up to right around 60x like I mentioned. I feel like this multiple is going to change drastically within the next year or two because as more and more money gets into these companies, they have to spend no matter what, right? So if they have the confidence that they can grow out these businesses, they are willing to pay more for the business than the usual pricing that is right now. And I feel like that's going to be the very first domino to fall in the Amazon FBA FBA ecosystem because now that all these institutional people that have not had the experience on selling on Amazon FBA are going to want to turn a profit very quickly and they're going to have pressure to do so. And I feel the next thing that's going to happen is PPC is going to go through the roof. But the thing is, sometimes an ACOS doesn't really matter and it really depends on what products you are selling. If you have a product that is repeatedly bought by the same customer, don't really focus on ACOS too much, especially within the next year. Your focus should be to get people enrolled in the Subscribe and Save program. So in the short term, you might be paying more for ads, but trust me, it's going to get more expensive and you'd rather have those customers enrolled and subscribe and save now than having to pay extra to acquire that business into that program. And I also see manufacturing being a big issue right now. If you are manufacturing products overseas, you see that there has been elevated in raw materials. Basically all my prices has gone up, even if it's not drastic It has impacted my bottom line. And don't even get me started with freight. Freight forwarding, not only is it more expensive, but it's jam-packed at every single port in the United States, which is causing me to have supply chain logistical nightmares. Things that were supposed to get delivered are so delayed that sometimes it's about a month out than what I previously expected. So I don't see the supply chain lightening up within the next 6 to 12 months, and it might be time to try and look for manufacturers in the US, especially if your plan is to sell your business within the next year. I would highly encourage you to try to do anything possible to find a manufacturer in the US and start testing out those products to see if they compare to overseas. And the last 2 trends that I see in the future is one, I feel like Shopify is going to be just for brick-and-mortar locations. I feel like Amazon is going to take over the entire space of ecommerce, especially with all these new programs that are being laid out. Customers trust Amazon. They're continuing to grow, and people and eyes are gonna be on Amazon more than they'll be any Shopify store. If you have a local presence, then Shopify will be a great type of platform you can go ahead and use, but it's no longer going to be an ecommerce type of dropshipping and putting your actual brand there. I feel like if— especially if you are going to have the goal of selling your business, you have to go all in on Amazon because that is what people are looking for nowadays. And the last trend, you're going to see more videos like this. Amazon FBA and selling your business is going to be a new trend because a bunch of these aggregators like Thrasios are going to continue buying out businesses. And it feels great as a seller to be able to build a business for a few thousand dollars and being able to sell it for multiple 6 figures should be a goal for everyone.
