Selling your stuff on Amazon - Part 6- Advice for newbies in first post

soolin

Is it just me or what!! I'm having my best few days ever..I think I've sold 5 items through Amazon since the weekend which is an absolute record for me.

I did have one slight problem though, I emailed one buyer to highlight a passage from my listing blurb, and the mail keeps bouncing back. In the end I refunded 1p so that I could add a note to the refund saying I couldn't contact him, but wanted to highlight xxx. Was there an easier way of doing it than that?

Soo

Dormouse

plumpplop wrote:

Then I'm worried that I'm telling strangers that my house will be empty for two weeks.

I can't answer all your questions, but one thing I can say is that when you set your holiday settings, you don't actually tell them how long for - you just switch them off when you come back, IYSWIM. So you're not really telling anyone exactly how long you'll be gone

apprentice_tycoon

plumpplop wrote:

Off on hols next week and had planned to set holiday setting about 2 days before we go. all well and good but what if I send something off before I go and it gets lost or buyer request refund whilst I'm away? Will amazon holiday setting notify them that we're away or should i send email before I dispatch item explaining?

I don't think that there's a way around this other than close your listing earlier so that every order has been delivered to it's buyer before you go and then hope for the best that all's well, maybe in the email you tell your buyer that you are away 'for a few days' so that they know you can't get back to them - the chances of your buyer being a career house breaker is a bit remote I hope

apprentice_tycoon

soolin wrote:

Is it just me or what!! I'm having my best few days ever..I think I've sold 5 items through Amazon since the weekend which is an absolute record for me.

I did have one slight problem though, I emailed one buyer to highlight a passage from my listing blurb, and the mail keeps bouncing back. In the end I refunded 1p so that I could add a note to the refund saying I couldn't contact him, but wanted to highlight xxx. Was there an easier way of doing it than that?

Soo

Have you checked your horoscope or feng shui'd your house?:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I think the refund of a penny to contact your buyer was nifty, I hope it works

soolin

apprentice_tycoon wrote:

Have you checked your horoscope or feng shui'd your house?:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

:T

apprentice_tycoon wrote:

I think the refund of a penny to contact your buyer was nifty, I hope it works

Well, I am tidying the book shed! My OH had kindly bought me some heavy cardboard boxes but they were a dead loss as books are so heavy the bottom falls out of them. I came across some blue lidded crates in B and Q for £3.97 each so have invested in them and think they will work out easier.

I bought a few more books this morning and the library lady said they are the last ones now. She even made a throwaway comment that I must be selling them

Soo

katchambers

Hi everyone,

I'm back off my hols now (had a great time!) and also been off work sick! Must have caught flu just as I left the boat - bizarre - must have been the air con. Have been selling on amazon for the last week and am almost caught up to my 30 again even though I had a week off, so sales are ok at the moment. Incidentally I have had 3 today!

Plumpplop - I don't think you should worry about telling your customer you are on holiday, just say you are off on hols soon and may not receive an email from them, don't give an exact date. As far as your items on amazon, they will all be completely removed from amazon's systems, your items won't be there with a little note saying your away like ebay, they are just removed completely, and no amazon won't email anyone to say you are away, all they do is remove every listing and then put them back when you take the settings off.

I have bought books from ebay before with success. It is always a risk that you will get leftovers that won't sell on amazon, but if the price is low enough or you can see a few good sellers than you should be ok. I bought a lot of 2000 books that cost 10p per book and therefore was worth the risk, it was a mixed bag of new, old fiction and non, I was and still am happy with that lot and have sold a lot from it.

Just wanted to say that I have been using royal mails online postage for 2 months now and I am more than happy with it. Firstly is looks much more professional and you can include your name and address so you don't need labels ( saves a bit of time) and there is no q'ing in post offices - can't get better than that!! I love it and it saves me sooooooooo much time, plus it keeps track off all my postage for me which helps with my tax and stuff. I highly recommend it to everyone, except of course the lady who wants to save her local post office, but everyone else who has a printer, give it a go, it's sooooo good - all you need are weighing scales (I use my ww electronic ones) and a printer. Here is the link:
http://sg.royalmail.com/portal/rm/PriceFinder?catId=23500532&reset=true&gear=pricingcalc

Just a thought, people were talking about how the post office says the envelope has to pass freely through the slot and some are stricter than others but how are they going to enforce it when you do online postage as I do? I am more likely to shove it through the slot and will give more leeway than my post office would but I don't want my mail having problems.

I've also decided that I am going to buy some thin manilla envelopes without the bubble wrap inside and buy some thin foam and use both of them rather than bubble envelopes, but only for the ones that are too thick, I'm hoping this will help with those that don't quite go through the slot, because if they do it saves a fair bit of money. Bought the foam for cheap on ebay and poundland do the envelopes I need, greenmetropolis suggest that you send in an unlined envelope from now on anyway so if I have their approval i will do it for those.

Kat x

Amazombie

soolin wrote:

In the end I refunded 1p so that I could add a note to the refund saying I couldn't contact him, but wanted to highlight xxx. Was there an easier way of doing it than that? Soo

Isnt it likely that Amazon's email to the buyer informing them of the refund will bounce back as well?

I had a buyer phone me last week about a refund and I told him that I'd emailed him several days before to let him know and he just laughed and said oh I never use email the account is closed??

Annie021063

[quote=katchambers
Just wanted to say that I have been using royal mails online postage for 2 months now and I am more than happy with it. Firstly is looks much more professional and you can include your name and address so you don't need labels ( saves a bit of time) and there is no q'ing in post offices - can't get better than that!! I love it and it saves me sooooooooo much time, plus it keeps track off all my postage for me which helps with my tax and stuff. I highly recommend it to everyone, except of course the lady who wants to save her local post office, but everyone else who has a printer, give it a go, it's sooooo good - all you need are weighing scales (I use my ww electronic ones) and a printer. Here is the link:
http://sg.royalmail.com/portal/rm/PriceFinder?catId=23500532&reset=true&gear=pricingcalc

[/quote]
Kat - I wanted to say thanks for this precious piece of info - I truly didn't know about this and it will save me so much valuable time. Thanks again
Annie

apprentice_tycoon

Hi Kat, thank you for the link, I'd looked at it before and decided that it was too much bother but as you recommended it I had another look. I printed one 'stamp' out for an ebay parcel and took it with the rest, the PO manageress said 'nooooooo, you aren't going to use these are you???!!!'
I spend around £500 /600 per month at the PO and I think that I would be missed if all I do is throw a sack of stamped up parcels over the counter so I assured her that I was just trying it out to see how easy it was.
Maybe they will look after me even more now, a comfy chair maybe? a cup of Earl Grey and a bikkie while they put my parcels through? I'll report back -

About the size guide - my PO staff have told me that the guide on the public side is just for customer reference, the one on their side is the one to be used to calculate the cost and they won't be doing any squeezing or shoving to get the package through - so - that means that if you are doing it yourself at home then I assume you mustn't squeeze and shove either so it will be interesting to see how many pieces of post are 'home stamped' too cheaply, it will mean lots of work to recover the excess from the recipient, maybe there'll be a few weeks grace?



edit - Ive added kats info about the postage labels to the opening post so it won't get lost

plumpplop

Just to say thanks to you all for your good advice, as usual. I'll stop fretting now.

Clare