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

soolin

flipper_2010 wrote: »

Haha, I was thinking about doing the table of books if i ever get round to starting as a business :rotfl:

Just out of interest does anyone know where these huge companies get their 'thousands of books a week' I was just wondering where they all came from (as we're supposed to be a nation of book hoarders)

There are companies that sell by the pallet load that advertise soemtimes on Amazon seller boards. I haven't got the room to take that much unsorted but I did once consider seeing if I could have a pallett delivered to a storage warehouse and sort from there into my own storage.

Sexy_Em

Hello!

I've been trading on eBay for a few months now, and am thinking of expanding to Amazon. This thread is great, thanks for everyone's tips and advice :-)

I just wondered a couple of things:

1. Am I right in thinking that Amazon do not contact you once you have sold something - it is just up to you to keep checking your account?

2. Is there any way of seeing if a book or whatever has been sold recently - like you can search eBay's 'completed listings'?

Thank You

Em

soolin

Hi Em, technically Amazon do send you a sold despatch now email, although some people on certains ISPs report not always getting these. I make a habit of checking in my orders at least once a day just in case. You do need to log in though to get your address and buyer details, anything sent to you with an address on email is a scam, so easier to deal with than ebay.

There is no equivaklanr to check completed listings, however the sales ranking tell you roughly whether you have a book likely to sell or not depending on past history.

Sexy_Em

Thank you :-)

flipper_2010

Do you find that if a book has sunk to a 1p nasty its going to stay that way and never be worth anything again? I'm just wondering whether to remove my books that have gone down to 1p's

soolin

flipper_2010 wrote: »

Do you find that if a book has sunk to a 1p nasty its going to stay that way and never be worth anything again? I'm just wondering whether to remove my books that have gone down to 1p's

It is very rare for books to ever go back up from a 1p and even as a pro merchant where i can still make a profit on them I tend to charity shop them rather than waste storage room. However one or two books have gone up again, usually where the book was popular, everyone dumps their copies and they suddenly announce a film is being made before the book is re released.Alledgedly it happened for a few days with 'Lovely Bones' but even then Amazon seriously undercut the sellers in a matter of a couple of days.

Just remember that an average sized paperback book will cost £1.85 to post 2nd class which means that non pro merchants make a loss.

flipper_2010

Thats what I thought, I never list 1p books but ones I listed ages ago have gone down to 1p so they can be taken off and go on bookmooch now

soolin

I was just on Amazon checking a few prices as I bought a mixed lot from auction this week. I have a lovely art book, weighs over 2kg even before packing and was disappointed to see it is listed at less than £5 which means I will have to charity shop it. However there are two very small personal sellers who both have it up for around the £4 mark.

I'm not sure they full understand how Amazon works and feel they may well be in for a nasty shock if their copy sells. There's already a long and rather argumentative thread on the seller boards from someone who originally asked how he went about getting more from Amazon or the buyer for postage on a heavy book where his net proceeds didn't even cover normal postage.

INSPIRED

This thread has been most helpful and I sold my first book on Amazon last night.

However, I had got it into my head that we must post everything 1st class .....I made .05p profit!! If we post the item within 24 hours is it okay to post 2nd class?

I noticed on the order details that Amazon asks for the tracking details. There are no tracking details with 1st or 2nd class mail so is it okay to leave this blank?

discountmummy

I dont thinkyour expected to send them 1st, I send mine 2nd class anyways and type standard in the details.