selling your stuff on Amazon - part 8 - advice for newbies in the first 2 posts

:dance: Thanks guys, I'm getting quite excited by this - I just listed a couple of graphic novels (I'm an SF fan in my other incarnation, and these are *old*) - the minimum price is £15 or so, and I put one of them on for £20, as it has four autographs in it of actors from the TV show.

numberthree wrote:

Hi Pinkgem,

I've only sold 1 item since Feb 23rd and I've got 500 items listed!!!

Oh yes and I've had one pending which didn't materialise into a sale.

It is just as though I have been switched off completely by Amazon. Things had been going nice and steadly at around 1 sale a day since Christmas, but now I will have to fund my Pro Merchant subs from my credit card today.

Boo Hoo

Well done sticking with it numberthree! Like you, I had a very slow start to February, then stopped completely - I didn't sell a single thing for 9 days despite 300ish listed.
Things have really picked up again now - sold an Irish history book to someone in Dublin for £65 at the weekend!!!
Printed paper rate airmail seems no more than 1st Class for some weights, so I'm now opening more listings up inernationally
Anyway, stick with it, and try listing some more - for some unknown reason, I think that helps sales of the existing listings ?

god i'm kicking myself now, my mum and dad just donated 6 big black bags of books! i bet i could have sold them on amazon....

i listed a book i gave my daughter to read it sold

but a dvd for my son at charity shop listed it and it sold....he remembered it last night and asked to watch it lol

started reading a book and it sold

moral behind the story the one with lots of reading in it getcarter is get reading and the book fairy will arrive!!

I'm just about to hang up my boots from selling as I have just got a proper job now, thought I would pass on some things I think might be helpful:

1. Always check the sales ranking of the book if you are considering buying to sell. When I started I thought 'whoopee' everytime I bought a book from a charity shop for 10p and it was listed on Amazon for £10.00. In actuality, most of these books have a 'None' sales rank; ie no one has bought a copy of the book for at least a couple of years, and it may not get bought again. After a while I learnt only to buy books that had a sales rank of less than a million or so, or they would never sell.

2. Look on ebay's wholesale section for people selling boxes of books in your area. I bought about 200 books in a joblot for £10.00, and made my money back in sales within days. I reckon I have made about £100.00 from this box in the past 3 months. If you have the means there are often lots of 1000s of books which sell for about £100, all you need to do is be able to pick them up. If only half of them are worth selling you will still be in profit.

3. Fred Dibnah and Train maps. These are two examples of niche book collecting areas where you can buy on ebay for much less than you can sell on amazon for. I bought two rare Fred Dibnah books from an ebay seller for a tenner each, and have them listed on amazon for £50 each. The same is true of train maps. There are many collectors out there and there is a good market for the right book.

4. If you ever get bad feedback, try and buy them off. I had two 3 out of 5's and offered them both a half refund (which amounted to about 1.50 for each book) to withdraw. They were happy to do so, and having 100% as my feedback is a very big selling point for customers, especially when selling competively (ie penny books) where there are hundreds of books listed at the same price and condition.

5. Change your name. I changed my zshops name and saw my sales rise considerably, try to make yourself sound like a bookshop rather than a nerd with an attic full of books (I just used my hometown followed by 'books'). People are more likely to buy from places that sound reputable than 'hornycat69' or something.

6. Never say you will send a heavy book abroad, even if you have it listed for a tenner or something. You have no idea how much the postage can be to send an encyclopedia to Canada!

7. To save on postage costs, I cut up cardboard boxes to make a surround for the book, and then put it in a normal A4 envelope. There are only so many trees in the world and buying new jiffy bags when the customer isnt really bothered as long as it gets there ok is such a waste.

8. Check your listings regularly. Even if it says 'Low Price' this is only in the condition you have listed in. Sometimes you will have a 'Very Good' listed as 'Low Price' but you have been undercut by someone selling 'New' for 50p less. You arent going to sell if this happens!

Hope this has been helpful, and I would be interested to hear the thoughts of thos much more established than I on my methods!