selling books on Amazon - tips for more profit

LabRat wrote:

Hi,

Thank you all for your postings. I have considered selling books on eBay, and think I will try Amazon first. If you are posting to US from UK doesnt that make it really expensive and eat up all of your potential profits?

If you are selling on Amazon your postage credit increases accordingly - however always check the airmail printed papers postage price if a book or small packet price if anything else before listing it to see that you will have enough money left over. I have sold to overseas buyers, never had any problems - touch wood. I always made sure I emailed them at every stage and I sent everything airmail - it may be tempting to send things surface as it is far cheaper (you can't do this to europe) but it can take up to three months to arrive in some cases and cause a whole host of problem. Sending stuff airmail means that stuff will arrive within two weeks - quicker time to sort out any potential problems.

Fantastic news! I listed 14 books last night and I had an e-mail this morning to say I had sold one already! I only listed them at about 11pm and sold it this morning at 9am.

Good to hear about the 'holiday' setting. I will make use of that.

Regarding the tax situation, is there any tax liability if I am just selling books I have used and finished with that were not bought with the intention of re-sale? If I sell a novel how can the inland revenue prove I bought it to re-sell or otherwise? I suppose volume of sales will come into this but I was just interested.

Thanks everyone for this link.

Several people on this thread have already commented on the demand for "self help" type books on Amazon.

This is indeed true - in fact there is a massive demand for such titles, especially those that have gone out of print.

So my tip is this - when you find yourself selling one of these titles, carefully check the amazon.co.uk prices. Put your book up for sale at the appropriate price for it's condition. If it sells quickly, then visit amazon.com, and see if you can buy it cheaper - for an out of print, expensive book, you almost always will be able to. So buy it from .com, and sell it on .co.uk. If you find a really popular title, also checkout ebay.com.

Some vendors on both amazon.com and ebay.com say they will only ship to the USA, but most, if you email them nicely, will ship to the UK.

I appreciate that this will only work with a small number of titles, but during the last year I've found several titles that will produce a £20 net profit (post and commission included) and all it takes is a trip to the post office.

If you do sell this way, it's probably worth absorbing the cost of recorded delivery. What ever you do, don't loose the slips you get back. My personal experience is that 2 in 100 recorded delivery items go missing.

Finally, when posting a book of any value, I'd always get a "Certificate of Posting" slip from the Post Office. This costs nothing and proves you've posted the book. As I understand it, proof of posting equates to proof of delivery - i.e. once you have the certificate of posting, it's the purchaser that runs the risk if the item gets lost. Now, in the real world (and to keep your credibility on Amazon) it's probably always going to be the case that you issue a refund - but at least you can prove you posted it.

Hi,

I've done the look up by artist/author & title for CD's and books, but as Apprentice Tycoon said do detail that it isn't the specific code and any differences, otherwise you'll upset potential customers, and you don't want negative feedback or to do refunds.

On CD's it's also worth checking the track listings, there are odd CD's where different releases have had slightly different content. i.e. You get either a track more or less, or the order is different.

On books do state if it's a different backing or photo, also the publisher, edition and date of publication.

This has worked OK for me although I think technically you shouldn't list it unless you can look up the specific code. e.g. People are normally very happy when it's the hardback instead of the paperback version of a book.