selling your stuff on Amazon...part 2

Sofa_Sogood

chickadee wrote:

Sofa, I read it back and you are right. I'm so used to talking to myself, I even write like that!

Dear Diary,

chickadee
x

You should write a blog, in between putting those coloured stickers on (I've bought colour-coded sticker books - bloody stickers took off part of the spine!

But I like that idea, as things are getting so hectic - I was thinking of taking out a bed from an unused bedroom - and replacing the bed with more bookshelves _pale_

And to make things worse ... Mr S agreed!

numberthree

Just a query in response to a couple of others who asked the same question - where do you see that someone is waiting to purchase a book and how much they are willing to pay for it?

I don't think I've ever come across this before - although I have been known to miss the obvious before when it's right in front of me!!

purplepatch

numberthree wrote:

Just a query in response to a couple of others who asked the same question - where do you see that someone is waiting to purchase a book and how much they are willing to pay for it?

I don't think I've ever come across this before - although I have been known to miss the obvious before when it's right in front of me!!

If there are no other books available and buyers waiting, the blue box on the right of the screen headed 'Ready to Buy?' will say 'x buyers waiting' somewhere. If there aren't any waiting, it doesn't say it.

As far as how much they are willing to pay for it, in my experience there's no way of telling other than trial and error.

purplepatch

Here's a question for any sellers with long term experience of selling on Amazon.

Have you found that there is a seasonal pattern for your selling? I'm finding February very quiet compared to every other month I've been selling for so far (since last October). I signed up for the pro-merchant seller on 30 November, so February is my last month at the 50% fee rate. Not sure whether to continue it. Had consistently been selling over 40 items a month, but have only had 13 items so far this month.

I'm thinking perhaps Amazon are aware that sales drop off in say the early part of the year, hence them offering the pro-merchant deal expiring at end November as they know that new people will sign up and be encouraged by the sales over christmas and therefore keep it going - only to find that they don't sell enough to warrant having it once the 3 half price months are out of the way but probably stay signed up as they think it was just a bad month. Nice little earner for amazon. Or am I being cynical?

apprentice_tycoon

Purple, I've been selling for a few years now but I only took out the pro-merchant subs last autumn, it was only then that I decided I just had to make it pay and switched my head around from picking up the odd book when I came across them to actively seeking them out, my stock went from around 100 items to 400 and this increase seems to be the only way to ensure you have at least your subs covered (around 33 sales per month). I think that it all boils down to how active you want to be on building the stocks up and how many you're prepared to hang on to on the off-chance of selling them later....years later...I have sold books that have been listed for 3 years.

Maybe you're right about the timing of the offer, I'm sure they know what they are doing at Amazon and if people carry on with the subscription and can't make it pay for itself then they gain.

seabiscuit_2

My postman with a van came today with a crate for me :rotfl: - he said he would leave it til he came tomorrow and that I was his best customer

Im definately swapping way too books me thinks

on the plus side - a book i swapped on risi just sold for 13 quid why dont people check their book values before swapping? I guess their loss my credit card gain

HOLsale

i just sold another item, a cd that would have sold for much less on ebay!

slow and steady wins the race, that's my motto

i wish we had more money to invest in picking up more items to sell... we're desperately skint right now but i think if i had a few hundred items to list vs only about 40 i'd be selling a lot more...

oh well, maybe when dh gets his april installment of grant money he can give me £100 to invest in stock.... that should go a good long way at charity shops and boot sales

speaking of boot sales, does anyone have good luck getting decent amazon type books there? i should think you could pick them up for a pittance

i'm going to try one of the auction houses soon, it's one of my goals for march...

purplepatch

apprentice_tycoon wrote:

Purple, I've been selling for a few years now but I only took out the pro-merchant subs last autumn, it was only then that I decided I just had to make it pay and switched my head around from picking up the odd book when I came across them to actively seeking them out, my stock went from around 100 items to 400 and this increase seems to be the only way to ensure you have at least your subs covered (around 33 sales per month). I think that it all boils down to how active you want to be on building the stocks up and how many you're prepared to hang on to on the off-chance of selling them later....years later...I have sold books that have been listed for 3 years.

Maybe you're right about the timing of the offer, I'm sure they know what they are doing at Amazon and if people carry on with the subscription and can't make it pay for itself then they gain.

I suspect I will keep it going - I seem to be developing that "have to make it pay" mentality that you describe. It's just this very obvious February downturn that has worried me a bit. I haven't slowed down with my listing, consistently got the same amount of stock on the go.

Do you keep spreadsheet records of your sales? If so, can you see any monthly trends?

apprentice_tycoon

Purple, I don't keep any records myself of what actually sold and when I just record the money info on my tax spreadsheets so I don't see trends as such.

HOL boot sales are often good for picking books up but you can't go home to check them out on amazon and go back to buy them the next day like you can in a charity shop so you have to take a leap of faith that the books you find are not penny books.

beastoid_2

Forgive me if i'm wrong here AP, But, even if your buying books at 20-25p a time and they do turn out to be penny books, there is still a small profit to be made after postage isn't there ? And the more stock you have the more chance of somebody finding something else that you may have.