Selling Your Stuff on Amazon Part 12 - Advice for newbies in first two posts

rare_stuff

helsbells wrote: »

Oh no it was saying on the news today there is a new machine in a major bookshop which can instantly print and sell out of print books for the cover price :eek: I know it won't affect collectors editions but its the recently out of print ones that make the best money. It has about a million titles stored so I suppose there might be many more not stored. The writing is on the wall for my empire but at one book a fortnight I don't think any one will notice:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

You do have to consider that this isn't a free or cheap service. Prices I have heard quoted are around 10p a page, so with lots of out of print titles they will still hold good value. Also, don;t expect them to be able to produce a book instantly on demand, it's likely your order will be queued and you wil have to wait according to current demand.
Even is the price comes down a lot and every high street bookshop has one of these it may still be profitable to deal in out of print titles and undercut the print on demand copy for a good profit.

velogal

Hello, newbie here; thank you for a very helpful thread

Phew! I've finally sorted my books into the ones I want to keep and ones I'd (hopefully!) like to sell, and would appreciate any advice.

For those of you who already had an Amazon account (as a customer), did you set up a separate account for selling?
I have an Amazon account but my registered email & user name is my full name. (As in, my email address is <my real name>@gmail.com. And when I log onto Amazon, it greets me by my full name.)

If I want to set up a seller's account, say, as "Velogal's Books", do I go through an entirely new and separate registration process? Or can I use my existing account, and simply register my bank details and alternative username?

Another question is, amongst my books, I have a few personal "collections" of particular authors. Separately, the books themselves have a value of anything from 1p to 5pounds+, and the publishers, age & condition of books are all different. But if anyone was a fan of a particular author, it might be a nice opportunity for them to acquire multiple titles in one go.

I've never used eBay, and after reading some of the posts at MSE about unscrupulous buyers, it has put me off a bit. But has anyone had any success selling books by one author as a collection there? I'm wondering whether I should go ahead and list the books separately on Amazon, or hold them back if there's any chance of selling them on eBay (or elsewhere) as a set.

I guess I am still kind of attached to these collections (which I built up, book by book over the years), and would love to see them go to a good home as a "set".

Many thanks in advance for any input!

soolin

My advice would be to check out completed listings on ebay and also current prices and sales rankings on Amazon before making decisions as to what to sell where.

Personally I have had limited success with 'sets' of books as usually people are looking for the odd two or three they are missing for their collection, they usually have bought one or two before they decide they like the author. The only time a collection might go is when they are mega cheap, I recently bought the entire set of Kathy Reichs as they were £10 delivered on Red house, previously i had been picking up second hand copies in charity shops or occasionally on ebay.

You mention 1p books, be careful with those as for a standard paperback a non pro merchant will make a loss after posting as a normal sized paperback sent 2nd class now costs £1.85. Check them out on ebay instead and see what, if any, have sold in the past. For private sellers on Amazon listing at 99p or less is currently free, just remember to take account of all your fees though when setting a price.

velogal

soolin wrote: »

Personally I have had limited success with 'sets' of books as usually people are looking for the odd two or three they are missing for their collection, they usually have bought one or two before they decide they like the author. The only time a collection might go is when they are mega cheap, I recently bought the entire set of Kathy Reichs as they were £10 delivered on Red house, previously i had been picking up second hand copies in charity shops or occasionally on ebay.

Thank you for your advice, Soolin!

I just looked up the completed listings on eBay, but none of the authors I own as a collection have been sold as sets. I did notice some sellers selling books as sets this way though (example:a seller named "turnbullbooks1813").

Mine are not popular best-selling authors, but obscure European ones, so I'm not surprised there's not an extensive listing for them. I don't mind selling the sets cheaply (I'd be happy if they averaged out at 1 pound per book plus postage.) I'm not at all profit-minded regarding these sets - I guess I have a romantic notion that they go to a fellow fan

I think I am too much of newbie for eBay just yet (I am scared of being scammed, and I don't know how to make those very professional pages for individual listings.) Also, I read in a MSE article that I should buy some items first, before trying to sell, in order that I get some ratings. I think I'll hold back on the sets for now, and just start listing the other 100s (!) of books I need to let go, on Amazon.

Do you have any advice regarding my question about setting up an Amazon seller's account?
Many thanks again!

soolin

Thank you to whoever it was that sent the selling fairy back to me. After a real drought where I was selling 6 books on ebay to every one on Amazon I have just sold 6 in the past 24 hours on Amazon.

JesaRose

Can you send her my way please soolin

grunnie

I checked my seller account on Amazon to add some books and it said I had sold a book. When I checked it had sold yesterday afternoon but had no email to say it was sold. Double checked my deleted folder and waded through all the spam emails but none to say I had sold a book

ArmitageShanks

Seller Central:

Is there a selling interface more suited to higher volume?

Such as pain finding orders, changing each one to dispatched individually etc

Also is there any way to reduce fees, I think we're paying around 20%

Thanks

wishuponastar

Hi all,
I decided to start selling some books on amazon so i opened up a seller account last night and listed the books.

All fine until today...i went onto inventory and about 3 of the listings are showing up as a blank title and i cannot get into them to edit them. They have not been sold. So i came across a new sellers help forum and posted a question.

Now i have two problems...

1. I cannot find this forum again to check replies.
2. I still do not know what has happened to the missing listings

Can anyone help? much appreciated. thanks in advance

roy_harper

I have quite a few Sir Walter Scott Waverley novels that are ancient - no ISBN. How do I list those items please?