selling your stuff on Amazon...part 2

seabiscuit_2

another silly question

the pro selling thing with amazon - at what point do you decide if its worth paying or not

i didnt, as i didnt expect to sell much, but in the week ive had stuff listed ive sold 25 items of various value, now things are slowing down and i think thats because the desired stuff has gone and im left with the naff or unwanted stuff so im reluctant to pay a monthly fee if this is the case

whats the general thoughts / suggestions on this?

and apologies if this is a dim question my brain is still like chocolate fudge cake (hmmmmmmm chocolate fudge caaaakkkkkkeeeee - droooool)

apprentice_tycoon

Not a silly question at all -

You need to sell around 30 items a month to end up better off....one a day is how I see it.

With me I saw it as a spur to make my little Amazon business grow, because I had to sell all these 30 items I made flippin sure that I met this target by buying in more stock to crank up the level of choice that I have to offer. I went from having around 80 books in stock to over 300. I now sell around 50 items per month and the takings are about £230 per month (that's purely what comes from Amazon, I pay postage, the cost of the books and packaging materials out of that - plus tax)

Going 'pro' all depends on if you want to just sell your own things or buying in stock.

Angela

Hi all,havent been around for a while as my real job has been busy and have had some more pressure put upon us, so only been lurking in the mornings to catch up with all the posts and posting all my sales and swaps has kept me busy.

What a wonderful post by fannyanne about being able to pay her credit card bill now just because of this thread,I really enjoyed her post as that is what this site is all about moneysaving and helpfull people.

AT knows I think this is the best thread on the site as I have sung her praises since this thread started.

I have a query I know we dont want any 1p sales as these are a waste of time(unless very light),but when do you class a book worthy of profit,I tend to think about £1 plus the P&P but would be interested to know how you rate your books this way?Its just I noticed a book on the swapit forum from one of us and it was going for £2.75 on amazon and if that had been me I would have hung on to it?

Just coming to the end of my second month and have sold 50 books which I think is very good,it will be interesting to see what sales feb brings as I will have to decide if I am staying pro merchant,it is a real boon not having to relist books all the time.

My feedback has gone down to 4.9 due to someone thinking my as new wasnt as new as she thought,oh well thats life,not going to get wound up about that as it hasnt affected me as all and dont have the time to follow it up.

Do hope mike didnt get accousted by the antiquarian book person he had that meeting with,perhaps he was overstepping his patch!!!!! lol

seabiscuit_2

apprentice_tycoon wrote:

Going 'pro' all depends on if you want to just sell your own things or buying in stock.

thanks - at the moment we need the space from selling our own bits, but I guess once they are cleared, I would look at buying stock in to sell on (but ive got nearly 200 bits listed atm and its all my own stuff so want to either sell or recycle one way or another)

but I admit to chasing books on readitswapit that I want but also have a better value on amazon (got a nice one today - its worth about £10 on amazon - so gonna quickly read and then sell on - lovely swap for a 1p book)

apprentice_tycoon

Hi Angela, my strategy with swapit is - all the 1 penny or un-amazoned were listed first. Then I had a look at the next tier of books, these were ones that were a bit more pricey but I saw them as 'bait' to reel in the more expensive, academic books because the people offering that kind of book as a swap might not be interested in the typical 1 penny books that I was offering. I also got a bit fed up of seeing the same old books in the boxes and thought a bit of fresh stock wouldn't go amiss

I think that selling 50 books is really good - just think of all those 86 pences you've saved! if you are toying with the idea of cancelling the pro merchant subscription make a note of the date that your subs are taken out because if you cancel a day late then you are signed up for another month.

seabiscuit_2

forgot to say - martin would be proud - ive managed to swap with someone on readitswapit for his book - now thats what i call money saving

voodoozoe

Well I have had contact from my "no show swapsie" who claims to have been away all week and posted my book yesterday...we'll see, I'm not holding my breath!!!(Feeling cynical after a particularly nasty dominoes game)

Got home to discover I have sold a Silk-Epil epilator on Amazon...to a man!!! My first dabble with anything other than books and CDs (it was given to me and I wasn't tempted to use it).

I saw a book on feng shui and asked to swap but the person didn't like my books (or it was one of you lot!!!).

I have had a couple of people put a little note in to say they hope I like the book which is very nice...TBH I haven't really been tempted to read any of them cos they just aren't my type of book. I hardly read at all since getting my laptop and discovering the mighty Amazon!!!!!!!!

cazmeg

I am thinking of cancelling my pro-merchant subscription. The 3 months will run out at the end of the month.

Sometimes it seems to be going really well and then it slows right down. Do you have to give any notice, or can you cancel right up to the next payment day?
I would like to carry on with it, but paying double makes quite a difference and puts a lot of pressure on. On the other hand I can see what AT means when she says it gave her the push she needed.

I think I willl have a good look back over my records and see how many sales I actually made. Is anyone else in the same predicament?

soolin

I didn't take out the pro merchant as I didn't sell enough books to make it worthwhile even while it was half price.

I'm happy to sell a few bits and pieces as I go along on Amazon, but have suddenly started selling a lot more on ebay, which is odd!

Soo

apprentice_tycoon

Hi cazmeg - I haven't cancelled so I can't speak with experience but I assume that it's pretty instant, you have already paid for this month (to make sure just look back on your account summary for the last 3 months, if there are 3 payments taken then you've paid in advance) so I assume that if you cancel today you'll still get the benefit till the end of the month - this is just a supposition but it makes sense to me....