Ebay or amazon?-which books where?

ampersand

After long absence, I am ploughing back on Ebay - in time, as bibliophile, for the Jolly New FREE U.K. P&P to kick in. My volumes are/?were? generally collectable>moderately/decently antiquarian.
Oh dear.

It galvanised me into investigating Amazon again. Didn't really get on with it as a selling medium the only time I ventured in, several years back.

Soolin - huge thanks for all your work and explanations - I spent time earlier today finding Seller Dashboard and other unknown Beasts. Have all noughts so far, but 'standard' as Seller[not having sold anything for nearly a year.]

My question is this: what do you suggest is a reasonable listing barrier for Amazon?
I'm thinking of weeding out everything below £5[recorded realised value].
At what price point should something run on Ebay?

....who still haven't answered my question about o'seas bidders more or less being obliged to pay UK P&P in addition to their own, if initial Selling Price is to reflect the UK P&P costs - this is ebay's own advice!
Extraordinary and in any other context, sharp practice! i.e. cost loading.
They'll be making a takeover offer for Tesco next[once they've scraped back via us their gross overpayment for Skype, oh yes, indeed.]

I really feel I will start putting all books on Amazon and would appreciate reading others' views/ experiences.

chja

Pop your books on (try play.com for modern ones too) - no listing fee so no risk.

Could also store them on Turbolister with high start price to account for free p&p and upload on the next free listing day (or just list and pay the fee if confident of selling).

If you do sell on Play and allow sales to Europe, price high as Play will r--- you on the exchange rate that they use.

RFW

ampersand wrote: »

....who still haven't answered my question about o'seas bidders more or less being obliged to pay UK P&P in addition to their own, if initial Selling Price is to reflect the UK P&P costs - this is ebay's own advice!
Extraordinary and in any other context, sharp practice!

That makes no sense. Why do you have to add the FULL price of the overseas postage?

Ames

There's also Green Metropolis, I've sold two books on there in the last week. Not too good for collectible, but good for normal books - standard is you getting £3, you have to pay postage out of this. For heavy books you have the option of adding more to the price to cover postage, and you have the option of reducing the price if you don't think it's worth it or want to sell quicker.

soolin

We all have different selling models and I barely understand my own let alone be able to explain it without the need for a flip chart and a glass of whiskey

Basically though when I list on Amazon I check the following:
1) cost of postage
2) sales ranking
3) other copies listed
4) other sellers feedback
5) price.

So I would never list a 1p novel that would cost £1.85 to post unless the sales ranking was good enough to turn it over in a week or so. I might list a 1p book with lower sales ranking if it could go as a large letter.
Any heavy books I always allow at least £1 profit for high sales ranking, but more profit if the sales ranking is poorer as I don't want to store large and heavy books that are going to stick around for ages and then only turn me a tiny profit.

I also look at ebay and check against previous sales, if something is not a seller I don't list it at all. I do try out rarer books, especially if they have somehting itneresting about them, maybe it is a bio of someone who has suddenly hit the news or something -and- who's bio is out of print. I also tend to list the stuff that churns out, York notes for this years AS levels etc, books from reading lists in schools.

I also list on ebid (have sold one item though in 5 1/2 years) ad have just started on Priceminster, but no sales so far. I also list books on Greenmet and sell about one a month.

cyberbob

ampersand wrote: »

....who still haven't answered my question about o'seas bidders more or less being obliged to pay UK P&P in addition to their own, if initial Selling Price is to reflect the UK P&P costs - this is ebay's own advice!

All you do is when you list international postage you take the price of domestic postage that you put in your price off the international postage rate. That way they only pay there postage. I also state in my listings that I do this

ampersand

Thankyou chja, soolin and cyberbob[that's v.g., may I hijack?] for all your helpful advice, which I shall certainly use from now on.
Had never heard of play.com.
Shall look at greemetropolis, ames, but have read rather a lot of thumbs downers on this one...horses for courses, sans doute, as for all selling sites.
I have to say, listing with Amazon is SO easy, compared with ebay.
Further, amazon can be done without turbolister and timing concern.
Have already thrown another couple on this morning. Takes seconds, unlike ebay, for which 21 listings took 15-16 hours the other day. I accept that my research is responsible for much of this, but their glitches and hold-ups and pix upload failures add a lot of time and cause SO much stress and re-working.....:mad:
Thankyou all again.