The Strategy

All popular movies produced by big film companies have a very straightforward life spin:

	At first, they're shown in cinemas across the World. This process usually takes 3-6 months, on some rare occasions – up to one year.
	After that, movies are being released on DVDs (and Blu Rays). A lot of money for film companies comes from DVD rentals and direct DVD sales to general public.
	When the popularity of a movie is settled (usually 1-3 years), movie translation rights are being sold to TV stations.

What we're interested here is the middle phase when movies are being released on DVDs (Blu Ray, UMD etc.). It doesn't happen accidentally – time when it happens is precisely calculated to make maximum profit from every single title.

The best part is that everyone knows when new releases will be launched. There are number of websites on the Net publishing this information for free. Basically you can use any retail website for this matter, like:

http://www.play.com/DVD/Blu-ray/ComingSoon.html

Once you have a list of upcoming titles and have checked the price and availability with your supplier, you can start listing those titles on eBay right away! Yes, it's totally allowed by eBay!

Just make sure you insert a very clear message in listings that this is a “pre-order” and item will be shipped out on release day:

*** Please Note ***
This is a Pre-Order
Item will be shipped out on
24/08/2008

Sounds too simple? Yes, it is very simple but it works! All you need is a supplier, template and eBay account. Wonder who will buy a movie 3 weeks before it's released? It may surprise you...

There are a lot of people out there buying pre-orders! Starting from true movie fans ending up with bargain hunters (they try to find the best price before movie is even released). Online retails make a substantial amount of money from pre-orders.

Here are few key pointers why I like this strategy:

	Money. Or to be exact – a lack of money needed to start profiting from Blu Ray movies. You don't have to buy any stock in advance. Once the release day arrives, just place an order with your supplier and ship out packages to your customer.
	Risk. You surely can't lose much apart from eBay listing fees. If listed items don’t sell so well, you won't lose much. Sometimes it's really not that easy to predict which titles will become best sellers and which won't. Of course, we can draw some parallels with how successful a particular movie was in cinemas but it won't work as a formula every single time.
	Profit. In many cases, with pre-orders you can make higher ROI simply because not many sellers are using this strategy, hence the competition is less than with hot sellers released a month ago or so. Also, people tend to pay more just to get hands on new releases as soon as possible.

Those 3 factors make this a perfect strategy for people just starting out on eBay. Of course, you can and you should use this strategy in conjunction with selling already released movies. Make sure to fire out a few e-mails to your current customers about up-coming releases (this will be covered in later lessons).

Quick tip: do not look for titles with release dates months ahead. You'll get more attention to listings with a release date of 2-4 weeks. Also, make sure you keep in touch with people who purchase pre-orders by letting them know when the item is shipped out.