Selling Your Stuff on Amazon Part 13 - Advice for newbies in first two posts

Chrisj206

yeah no sales here until yesturday, although only 10 books up at the moment and reasonably niche.

if only they ordered them all together, then i could do 1 bring post office trip. I've driven there 8 times now! Grrr lol

jasonwatkins

Wonder if anyone could help with a bright idea?

Saw this book today ..

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j145/jasonwatkins/Photo0024.jpg

.. and I decided to buy 3 copies . Basically it's a bit of a monster hardback book, which i assume would be defined as a coffee table book.

The copies I bought were brand new and pristine and I got them for £5 each.

As a huge Spiderman fan, I was aware that they did used to retail for £30 quid, so i checked ebay and there were a number of "Buy it Now" listings with the cheapest being £23 odd quid.

I reasoned that if I pitched my copies in around the £7 quid mark, i'd turn a teeny profit which i'd be happy with.

I weighed the books when I got home and they come in at 2 kilos each, so consequently the postage is going to be between £7 - £9 in the UK depending on selling them.

And what makes it worse is that Amazon are selling these books at £9 with free super saver delivery.

So I think i've basically made a bit of a boo boo.

If anyone has any bright ideas on how I can get rid of them i'd be grateful. I've listed them on ebay, but I doubt i'll have any takers since the price of the book and the postage comes in at £7 more expensive than Amazon.

I'd even be happy to sell them on and just make back the £15 quid i spent on all 3 copies if i could.

soolin

I'm rarely successful with coffee table books and tend to either try and flog them in the local small ads or just give them away via freecycle. However that book appears to be £11.99 on Amazon now, so maybe go in at around the £8.50 mark brand new so that you undercut Amazon once you add in your post and packing, and you should at least cover your outlay. If you are a pro merchant you'll get £.9.29 total, and for a non pro £8.43.

EDIT: Whoops, no you won't cover costs, stupid Soolin. up to 4kg as a parcel will cost you £7.06 postage.

Time for a rethink.

soolin

Oh and a word of warning, if this is your listing:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Spider-Man-The-ICON-by-Steve-Saffel-NEW_W0QQitemZ300392049362QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Books_Comics_Magazines_Graphic_Novels_ET?hash=item45f0c2ead2

You are in breach of ebay terms and conditions as you have stated freight as a postage option to get round the post and packing restrictions yet are offering RM post. That's a real no no I'm afraid.

EDIT: Oh and for goodness sake take out the surface mail option for overseas, you'll end up losing the book and your money as buyers will just slam in a protective claim regardless of your postage estimates and if you can't get it there in a couple of weeks paypal will refund them.

EDIT: you also appear to have forgotten to register as a business seller and you are not displaying your name and address.

jasonwatkins

soolin wrote: »

Oh and a word of warning, if this is your listing:

It is ...

soolin wrote: »

That's a real no no I'm afraid.

Would it be better to offer an actual courier service then ? I know it seems like a stupid question, but i've only ever done things that way.

soolin wrote: »

EDIT: you also appear to have forgotten to register as a business seller and you are not displaying your name and address.

I'm not a business seller. I'm a person who will sell the odd item here and there.

Some of the sellers on Amazon have £2.75 as the shipping costs. If I can achieve that, then I'd be only too happy to sell them on Amazon for cheaper than what's currently on there.

Thanks for your reply as well, very helpful.

lulu650

Son uses my amazon account to sell on his various books. He found some books in a skip in London almost a year ago. One just sold for........£170!! :eek:

soolin

jasonwatkins wrote: »

It is ...



Would it be better to offer an actual courier service then ? I know it seems like a stupid question, but i've only ever done things that way.



I'm not a business seller. I'm a person who will sell the odd item here and there.

Some of the sellers on Amazon have £2.75 as the shipping costs. If I can achieve that, then I'd be only too happy to sell them on Amazon for cheaper than what's currently on there.

Thanks for your reply as well, very helpful.

You bought three books to sell on, thats trading i'm afraid.

Yes you can offer a courier, check out the long courier thread but make sure you mention it prominently (I can't spell today!) in your auction terms to avoid people reporting you for adding postage, it also warns people who might not like couriers that they need to be in at some point for delivery.

Some of the sellers on Amazon have £2.75 as the shipping costs. If I can achieve that, then I'd be only too happy to sell them on Amazon for cheaper than what's currently on there.

£2.75 is a set postage credit from Amazon, you get £2.34 of that (I think that's right) so the prices I quote are the net proceeds including the postage credit so unfortunately won't cover your costs.

soolin

lulu650 wrote: »

Son uses my amazon account to sell on his various books. He found some books in a skip in London almost a year ago. One just sold for........£170!! :eek:

Oh the joy, the way I am with books I was probably the one who threw them out in the first place:rotfl:

lulu650

It's an old book about thought control soolin and weirdly we were only discussing it a couple of days ago when I was showing him an NLP book I was reading.

Spooky!

soolin

lulu650 wrote: »

It's an old book about thought control soolin and weirdly we were only discussing it a couple of days ago when I was showing him an NLP book I was reading.

Spooky!

Strangely enough at work yesterday some senior bods from overseas were discussing NLP and were demonstrating some simple bits. I have a note to myself to look through my book stock to see if i have any books as I wouldn't mind a read myself.

Meanwhile, I have a book here that goes for around £275 on Amazon (I bought it in a job lot at auction) can we all think and project encouraging feelings towards it so it goes and sells itself as I could do with the cash. OK, start now and i'll go and hold the book. :T