The Dumbest Way to Risk $5,000 in Amazon Inventory

August 4, 2025-4 min read

George Dimitriou

The Dumbest Way to Risk $5,000 in Amazon Inventory

Why going deep before you go wide is a mistake that eats new sellers alive

Most new Amazon sellers fall in love with one SKU, go deep, and burn through thousands in inventory before they know what sells.
It’s not a sourcing problem.
It’s not even a supplier problem.
It’s a thinking problem.

They bet on an unproven ASIN with real money before letting the market talk.
And when the price tanks, they learn the hard way:

“Bulk buys don’t create profit. Smart testing does.”

This article breaks down the real strategy behind going wide, then deep, and how to structure your purchasing like a portfolio, not a gamble.

Going Wide Is Risk Management, Not Hesitation

What it means:
Going wide means spreading your order across many ASINs, testing 20, 50, even 100 SKUs with small unit counts.
It’s not about playing small.
It’s about gathering data before capital commitment.

You get:

Faster feedback
Lower downside
A broad read on what the market wants

Yes, you may miss upside on one killer SKU.
But you also don’t torch $5K on a loser you assumed was a winner.

The real game?
Test wide. Spot the winners. Then go deep.

The Hidden Cost of Going Deep Too Early

Going deep sounds smart:
Buy more of a high-ROI product, make more margin, move faster.

But if you're wrong?
You’re not down 10%.
You’re down thousands with nowhere to go but liquidation.

Here’s what new sellers forget:

That one “great” product? It hasn’t proven anything yet.
Market conditions change fast: BSR, competition, price.
Supplier MOQs aren’t rules. They’re a filter to weed out unserious buyers.

Going deep without testing isn’t confidence.
It’s ego disguised as conviction.

The Wide-Then-Deep Playbook

This is the actual operator sequence:

First-time order? Go wide.
– 20–100 ASINs
– 12–24 units for higher-cost items
– 30–60 units for low-cost, high-velocity products
Analyze results after 30–45 days
– What sold fast?
– What stagnated?
– What kept margin?
Second order? Go deep on proven winners.
– Double down on the 3–5 SKUs that sold fast and hit ROI targets
– Moderate restock on average performers
– Cut everything else
Repeat the test phase in parallel
– Keep going wide on new finds
– Use part of your capital to constantly uncover new winners

This turns your purchasing into a repeatable growth system, not a high-stakes bet.

Don’t Let Supplier MOQs Trick You Into Stupidity

“But my supplier had a $5K minimum order.”

Good.
Now go build a $5K order across 10+ products.

If they only had one product that looked good?
That’s not a supplier you should go deep with.
That’s a red flag.

Smart buyers match MOQs with diversification.
If you can’t find enough solid products to build the order, the answer isn’t to bet the whole thing on one ASIN, it’s to find a better supplier.

Inventory Is Not a Flex. It’s a Liability.

New sellers often confuse bulk buys with “going pro.”
They brag about 2,000-unit orders like that’s the win.

But if those units sit, or the price tanks, they’re not inventory.
They’re anchors.

The flex isn’t going deep.
It’s knowing when to go deep and when to walk away.

Risk is real. Profit is earned.
And the sellers who learn to think like portfolio managers, not gamblers, are the ones who stay in the game long enough to win it.

Going wide is not playing it safe.
It’s playing it smart.

The sellers who go deep first usually don’t get a second chance.
The ones wh