Alex Michael Bought a $650K Amazon FBA Phone Wallet Brand for $675K

The Setup Alex Michael came out of tech sales, not e-commerce. He wanted to own a cash-flowing asset he could run remotely, and Amazon FBA fit the profile: inventory in Amazon's warehouses, fulfillment handled, a finite list of operating levers. He targeted single-product or tight-SKU brands where he could see the whole P&L on one page and where the moat was brand plus listing equity rather than logistics muscle he did not have. The target was Wallaroo, a phone pocket sleeve that adheres to the back of a smartphone. One hero SKU, one clear buyer, a review base that competitors could not replicate overnight. The business did roughly $650,000 in annual sales and threw off about $180,000 in SDE. The Deal - Purchase price: $675,000 - Seller financing: roughly $50,000 to $60,000, specifically structured to carry the inventory - Implied multiple: about 3.75x SDE, with the inventory note trimming the cash-at-close burden The competitive dynamic around FBA deals in 2022 was brutal. Aggregators were still live in the market, and any listing with clean reviews and real margin drew a crowd. Alex's edge was not a higher bid. It was the conversation. His tech sales reps translated directly: qualify the seller, find what they actually cared about (post-sale continuity, clean handover, not getting nickel-and-dimed on inventory), and structure around that. The inventory note was less a financing trick than a trust signal. Operating Moves On an FBA business, the operator is not really the CEO. Amazon is. Alex built his operating playbook around that reality: - Treat the Amazon listing as the factory floor. Protect the review velocity, protect the Buy Box, protect the conversion rate. Everything else is downstream. - Manage inventory to the day. Stock-outs tank rank, over-stock eats cash and FBA storage fees. The working-capital cycle, not the P&L, is what kills FBA operators. - Defend the hero SKU before expanding. New variants split reviews and cannibalize rank if launched too early. - Own the ad spend model. ACoS is the single most leverageable number on the P&L once supply chain is stable. Operating Lessons - You have a master. Any FBA thesis has to price in Amazon policy risk, suspension risk, and fee creep. Build the deal model with a worse take-rate than today's, not today's. - Rapport is the cheapest deal term. In a crowded auction, the seller picks the buyer they trust to not blow up their baby. Tech-sales discovery questions work on business owners too. - Seller financing on inventory is a tell. It keeps the seller partially on the hook for SKU-level accuracy and flushes out any games on slow-moving stock. - Underwrite to SDE, stress-test to ad spend. A 10-point move in ACoS can erase the SDE on a single-SKU brand. Know what the business looks like if Amazon ads get 20% more expensive. - Remote-operable is not the same as passive. FBA rewards daily attention to rank, reviews, and inventory position. Budget the hours honestly. Where They Are Now As...