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

Kite2010

I spent a good couple hours this afternoon editing my listings to ditch international shipment and had a good clearout of any old stock (stuff which has been on for over a year with a sales ranking in the millions), went to Magpie as £2.78 is better now for a CD then waiting for a potential sale in the next year for £7.00

waterhouse_melons

Hey guys, just read the first post and saw a hand held scanner part, but the website doesn't work. Where is a good place for a hand held scanner? They sound cool for using in shops to see if you can sell for more on ebay/amazon etc. Also, reading this thread has inspired me to go out for a shop tomorrow to grow my Amazon Selling account. What's best to look out for to maximise profits?

petestan

waterhouse_melons wrote: »

Hey guys, just read the first post and saw a hand held scanner part, but the website doesn't work. Where is a good place for a hand held scanner? They sound cool for using in shops to see if you can sell for more on ebay/amazon etc. Also, reading this thread has inspired me to go out for a shop tomorrow to grow my Amazon Selling account. What's best to look out for to maximise profits?

If you want to check the prices in the charity shops to see if a book is worth buying to resell on amazon you can get a bar code scanner ap for an iphone, I presume they will be available for most other phones as well.
If your just after a scanner to list items quicker without having to type in the isbn no. then buy a cheap hand held scanner off ebay.
If we all told you what was best to buy to maximise profits everyone would be selling it and no one would make any money on them so you have to find your own niche by trial and error, sorry Pete.

Kite2010

A good niche is new (ish) cd singles, not the charity singles or X-factor singles.

One of my best profits was a Lady Gaga CD single for "Just Dance", got it for 49p, sold for over £20. Most people buy singles as downloads and the market for physical singles has all but dried up, so some are rare and to collectors whom want everything ever released will pay to get them. IIRC my single went to Japan.

soolin

waterhouse_melons wrote: »

Hey guys, just read the first post and saw a hand held scanner part, but the website doesn't work. Where is a good place for a hand held scanner? They sound cool for using in shops to see if you can sell for more on ebay/amazon etc. Also, reading this thread has inspired me to go out for a shop tomorrow to grow my Amazon Selling account. What's best to look out for to maximise profits?

Just remember to factor in the postage increases today.

Taadaa

I have listed a load of things on Amazon, having sold a few bits before. I can't understand how some sellers are making a profit on books now that postage costs have gone up - for most books the minimum postage cost is 2.70. In order to break even, the book has to sell for 1.60.

I agree about price matching, there is no benefit in undercutting as it drives the price down. I think better to stick to a more reasonable price that will result in profit and wait for all the cheaper ones to sell.

petestan

Taadaa wrote: »

I have listed a load of things on Amazon, having sold a few bits before. I can't understand how some sellers are making a profit on books now that postage costs have gone up - for most books the minimum postage cost is 2.70. In order to break even, the book has to sell for 1.60.

I agree about price matching, there is no benefit in undercutting as it drives the price down. I think better to stick to a more reasonable price that will result in profit and wait for all the cheaper ones to sell.

That's the right way to do it although there are some of the smaller paperbacks that are cheaper to send, the big sellers get a discount on their postage as they send that many items out, that is how they can sell items for 1p and any items that are FBA (fulfillment by amazon) the seller doesn't have any postage costs as amazon sends them for the seller (they do have other fees though).

COOLTRIKERCHICK

thought I would cout out and revive this thread..:D due to the RM price increases etc..

Looks as though this was the last topic on the thread too

petestan

Yep I'm currently increasing the prices of my videos so I don't make a loss when they sell from 1st April, at the same time removing those that I deem are no longer worth listing also, once I've done them I'll have a look at my books. Unfortunately I do not expect Amazon to increase the fixed postage fee for us.

There are a couple of alternative postage couriers sellers can use now that are cheaper than Royal Mail if you are sending heavy items in the UK, these are https://www.myhermes.co.uk and https://www.collectplus.co.uk or you can now set up an account with Royal Mail and get a discount if you send 1000+ items in the year now.
Personally I have used them both and collectplus lost my parcel on the 1st and only time I used them so I won't be using them again but other sellers say they are good.
There is an alternative site for amazon / ebay sellers apart from the official seller boards if anyone wants to ask questions also, it's at:

http://harpmandoodle.com/Amazombie/index.php?sid=cff747d8f5df24465607f70deb3a26cc

Kite2010

Videos as in vhs tapes?

Is there a market, even charity shops have stopped taking them in and try to sell for 10p a tape.

Apart from vat changes, the postage credits have remained the same for years.