Alternatives to ebay – selling books

BridgeJ

I’ve got around 50 books (mostly Mills & Boon and similar) I want to sell, all in excellent condition. None of them would achieve a particularly high price on ebay (£2-£5) and because their fees + paypal fees are ridiculously high (not to mention the problems a seller experiences with buyers who now can chose to pay or not to pay w/o consequences), I’m looking for alternatives.

While cqout and ebid don’t have listing fees, they still charge similar fees including payment fees as ebay.

Play Trade and Amazon Marketplace are equally expensive. If I manage to sell a book for £3 including postage (which is for some books already too much), I am left with around £1.60 after deducting the fees. Which explains why it is so hard to find bargain books in very good condition nowadays.

Does anyone have any experiences with alternative book selling online where I can offer books at e. g. £2 and don’t have to spend half of it on fees and where I don’t have to offer a payment option such as paypal who charge a high fee? I’d be happy to sell a book at a decent price and am not going for as much as I can get for it (which ebay would be the best place for). I don’t want to give it away for a few pence either. I’d appreciate any useful recommendations.

soolin

You have really covered all th eonline places for books and realistically it sound slike your books are not the sort to be worth a great deal. You may have to either let them go for less than you hoped or just charity shop them.

The only other place to look at is Greenmetropolis but you do only get a fixed £3 per book on there from which you have to pay your postage costs. A standard chart type paperback will cost £1.63 to post 2nd class in a jiffy bag.

Really though if they are already only pennies on Amazon they are probably not worth trying to sell. However, for more Amazon tips there is a long thread on here that I will bump for you.

Also, as a book seller I would question why you feel these books are worth more? I can go to my local Tesco and pick up 2 chart books today for £7, if I use vouchers or coupons I can even have them delivered for that. With discounts on Waterstones I can buy many very popular books for less than £4 delivered. Mills and Boon unless rare or out of print ones are usually car boot fodder at around 20p per book. Last year I bought a large box of Mills and boon for a couple of pounds and I sell maybe one every 6 weeks on Amazon at 1p, which usually nets me around £1 profit as I am a pro seller. Books now are cheaper than they have ever been, the gold mine ones are the quirky out of print titles, text books or books that feature on a Uni reading list.

reniannen

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I volunteer in a charity shop and generally sell of the M&B and equivalents at 3 for a £1, regardless of condition, and I don't think we're alone in that. I'd say £1.60 profit per book is pretty good. Standard paperback books are just too easily available now, few will make any decent money.

A site I quite like to use is www.greenmetropolis.com . Although they only give you a standard £3.00 per book. You can deduct 50p or a £1.00 off of that if you wish (I can't see anyone paying £3.75 for a M&B), and they let you add a bit extra postage if they (not you) categorise the book as larger than average.

A better option might be to sell them as a bulk lot on ebay.

Edit: oopos Soolin beat me, spent too long typing lol

Energiser_Bunny

As an ebay bookseller as well I have to agree selling your Mills and Boon will be a pretty pointless exercise. Your best bet is to try and sell them as a job lot, with a winner picks up option to save on PO - but you will be lucky to get between £5+£10. You'd be better keeping or charity shopping. Sorry to sound negative but there is little point in you putting in the time and effort for no reward.

soolin

Also worth noting that Tesco discount current Mills and Boon to £2.99 or 2 for a fiver a lot of the time if you store is large enough to carry them.

fairy_gurl

i had over 300 mills and boon and was thinking of selling them but you can get them for 1p plus postage on amazon and ebay so i have just donated them all to charity its not worth it really.

soolin

fairy_gurl wrote: »

i had over 300 mills and boon and was thinking of selling them but you can get them for 1p plus postage on amazon and ebay so i have just donated them all to charity its not worth it really.

Actually it is always worth a quick trawl through them on Amazon. Whilst the majority of mine go a 1p I can still make over a £1 per book, but they do sell awfully slowly. I have however sold a few, not many admittedly, at prices over cover price and made £6-£7 per book, the Americans love them.

chja

Might be better listing as a job lot on eBay - collection only.

BridgeJ

Thank you for all your comments. I purchased those books on amazon + Marketplace, playTrade, WH Smith etc., all at a discounted price. Most of them new. I may try the job lot on ebay, saves also time. Most buyers will be like me looking for a specific book with a specific content and will search different sites to get the best price. No doubt it won't be easy to sell. Has anyone sold M&B on greenmetropolis? Do such books sell well on that site? I find £3 way too much (I wouldn't buy), looks like ebay remains the best option to get rid of them quickly.