Ben Cummings & Traian Turcu – Sourcing For Pennies

Curriculum (Google Drive Proof)

If you sell on Amazon or are planning to, “Sourcing For Pennies” by Ben Cummings and Traian Turcu is one of those rare behind-the-scenes trainings that focuses on the part most sellers quietly struggle with: finding high-profit products that don’t eat up your capital.

This is not a beginner “How to open an Amazon account” course. It is a sourcing and profit-multiplying system created by two seven-figure Amazon sellers who built their reputations by doing the thing most gurus only talk about: dominating competitive markets with clever product selection and ruthless economics.

In this in-depth review, we’ll look at who Ben and Traian really are, what “Sourcing For Pennies” actually covers, what real students say about their trainings, and how you can get it through TSCourses at the lowest price with instant access.

Who are Ben Cummings and Traian Turcu?

If you’ve been around the Amazon/private label world for any amount of time, you’ve probably heard their names.

Ben Cummings is a long-time Amazon seller and trainer known for his Elevated Ecommerce brand and coaching programs. Through his podcasts and courses, he has taught thousands of entrepreneurs how to rank products, build brands, and scale on Amazon. His style is direct, highly tactical, and based on what he and his private clients are doing in the real world, not theories.

Traian Turcu is one of the most respected “quiet killers” in the Amazon space. He is widely known as a multimillion-dollar Amazon seller who turned a small operation into a portfolio of very profitable products. Course descriptions and communities around his trainings often note that he has helped over 2,000 students, many of whom credit him with helping them hit six and seven figures in revenue. His specialty is uncovering unusual product opportunities, negotiating aggressively, and engineering margins that allow you to out-compete others without racing to the bottom on price.

Together, Ben and Traian co-hosted the Elevated Ecommerce Podcast, where they shared Amazon strategies, mindset shifts, and real-life case studies. That podcast gathered a committed following precisely because listeners could tell: these two are practitioners, not just marketers. Their collaboration in “Sourcing For Pennies” is essentially a deep dive into Traian’s sourcing genius, with Ben extracting the strategy, structure, and system behind it.

What exactly is “Sourcing For Pennies”?

“Sourcing For Pennies” is an advanced Amazon/ecommerce training focused on one core promise: show you how to consistently source products for a fraction of what your competitors pay, while maintaining or improving quality.

The big idea behind the course is simple but powerful:

If you can get the same (or better) product for dramatically less money, you gain an unfair advantage. You can:
– Price more competitively while still keeping large profit margins
– Outlast competitors in PPC and promotional battles
– Aggressively reinvest in inventory and scaling
– Survive market downturns and fee increases that wipe out weaker players

Instead of “find a product on Alibaba and hope”, Sourcing For Pennies breaks the process into a repeatable system that can be applied in multiple niches and product types.

While individual module names can vary depending on edition, here is what the curriculum typically covers conceptually:

1. Mindset of Extreme Margin

This opening section reframes how you think about product costs. Most sellers are happy with 25–30% margins. Ben and Traian show how top sellers engineer margins from the very beginning by:
– Working backwards from desired profit and cash flow
– Identifying where competitors are overspending on the supply chain
– Picking product types and materials where you can gain pricing leverage

It’s about thinking like a sourcing strategist, not just a product picker.

2. Product Criteria and Opportunity Filters

Before you even talk to suppliers, Sourcing For Pennies teaches you to apply strict filters so you never waste time on low-potential products. You learn:
– How to quickly eliminate products that will always have thin margins
– How to spot “hidden margin” opportunities where competitors are lazy
– Simple ways to cross-check demand, competition, and production costs

This alone can save months of trial and error and thousands of dollars in doomed test orders.

3. Non-Obvious Sourcing Channels

Where most Amazon sellers stop at Alibaba, Ben and Traian go much deeper. This part of the course explores:
– Alternative marketplaces and directories that many sellers ignore
– Regional sourcing hubs where you can get better quality at lower prices
– How to ethically “piggyback” on your competitors’ supply chain research without copying blindly

The point is to open your eyes to a wider world of suppliers, instead of fighting over the same factories everyone else is messaging.

4. Negotiation Systems for Rock-Bottom Prices

This is where Traian’s experience really shines. His claim to fame is squeezing every last unnecessary cent out of product costs while building strong supplier relationships. In this module you typically learn:
– The exact information to gather before negotiating
– Scripts and frameworks for getting better terms, not just lower unit costs
– How to play suppliers against each other without burning bridges
– When to push hard and when to lock in a long-term deal

Most sellers “negotiate” by asking for a discount once. Sourcing For Pennies teaches a step-by-step negotiation process designed to shave off costs in multiple layers: unit price, packaging, shipping, payment terms, and more.

5. Deconstructing Competitors’ Products

Another powerful part of the program is learning to reverse-engineer what your competitors are doing. You discover:
– Techniques to identify their likely sourcing region and supplier level
– Clues in packaging, materials, and listings that reveal cost structure
– How to match or beat their quality while undercutting their landed cost

Instead of guessing, you turn your competitors into a roadmap of what’s possible—and then aim to do it cheaper and smarter.

6. Quality Control without Destroying Margins

A common fear is that “cheaper” means lower quality. Ben and Traian address this head-on. They show how to:
– Design simple but effective quality control processes
– Use third-party inspection and testing strategically
– Negotiate quality- and defect-related clauses into your agreements

The end result: you protect your brand and reviews while maintaining ultra-low sourcing costs.

7. Scaling the Sourcing Machine

Finally, Sourcing For Pennies goes beyond one-off wins. It teaches how to:
– Systematize the research and negotiation process
– Train virtual assistants or team members to handle parts of sourcing
– Build a pipeline of new high-margin products instead of gambling on a single hero item

This is what helps students turn one good product into a portfolio and build a real business.

Real student feedback and reputation

Because “Sourcing For Pennies” is a specialized, premium-level program, you won’t find thousands of random reviews like you might on a mass-market platform. Instead, feedback tends to show up in ecommerce groups, private forums, and past customers of Ben and Traian’s other trainings.

A few consistent themes from students of their programs and from mentions around Sourcing For Pennies and related trainings:

– Results-focused teaching
Students often say that Traian’s trainings are “no fluff,” an