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

funkyfunkymonkey

G-man wrote:

I'm feeling a little guilty. I put up another 25 or so of my cds last night and today I check my email at lunch to find a question from a potential buyer. I couldn't answer as I was using my phone to check my email (can't use a pc for personal use during the working day). Anyway, I get home and start outlook to answer the question only to find a sold dispatch now mail for the same cd. Its a different buyer and was a couple of hours after the enquiry.
I don't know if I should send it to the buyer (I'm leaning towards this) or refund him and sell to the question asker (feeling sorry for him as my cd is one he has been looking for).
If I had access to a pc at work I could have answered straight away.
What would you guys do?

I would definitely send it to your existing purchaser. A lot of 'enquiries' often come to nothing. If yours wasn't the only listed copy the enquirer could buy one of the other copies.

Good luck with your turmoil

funkyfunkymonkey

peace wrote:

I've never sold anything on amazon before, but I've read everything and hopefully ready to start. I have a pile of books on mainly history esp. local (lancs), french and german, some nature and a few others. I'm not sure if it's better to sell on amazon or ebay or anywhere else? I know that some of the books are worth paying for by people with special interests e.g. birdwatching, railways etc. but I'm not sure where the best place to find these people is!

Any help much appreciated.

Amazon has the advantage that it only costs you once you sell (unless you go PM). So you can list at a good price and wait until a buyer comes along.

With Ebay you have to pay listing fees up front and it may not sell anyway.

You could check out 'completed listings' on Ebay for the books you want to sell and see if any have sold recently and at what price - you could then compare this to the Amazon price and choose between the two.

The problem with Amazon is that just because a book is listed at £50 or £100 it doesn't mean that it will sell at that price - there may be alternative editions for sale at 1p.

Happy selling.

FFM

snax

MattOsprey wrote:

Hi all,

I have a question for an Amazon genius.

I have seen books that state you can pay more for overseas delivery. Or special delivery.

How does this work?

I have a buyer in the USA who has bought a heavy book from me. I have offered to send it airmail for an extra £5.00.

This offer has been accepted from the buyer, but now I don't know how I can do it. Can anyone help.

P.S. I sent the book yesterday airmail anyway, as I thought the buyer would pay, and if they didn't want the service I would take the hit as I would still have some profit.

Thanks.

Matt

Had a similar situ with a prospective Aussie buyer who emailed to ask if I would post to Australia - if I could - he would be happy to purchase the item [he had already tried to purchase through Amazon the previous day but the transaction was rejected as I always only post to UK - Amazon software?]
Anyway I emailed back giving 3 options ....

Hi again XXXXX,

After determining the costs involved and considered the methods of delivery to Australia I would be happy to dispatch to you by any of the 3 options below provided the terms of payment can be agreed.

Option 1.
Surface mail - Delivery may take up to 56 days - this option is the basic one which is covered by the P&P element of your payment when you purchase from Amazon - there would be no further cost to you if you chose this option.

Option 2.
Airmail - Delivery 'aim' is 5 days - this option costs an extra £3.00 [approx A$7.50] ... [this is in addition to the standard P&P charged by Amazon].

Option 3.
International 'Signed For' - Delivery 'aim' is 5 days - this option costs an extra £6.50 [approx A$16.00] includes insurance and will require a signature on delivery. ... [this is in addition to the standard P&P charged by Amazon].

If you are still interested in purchasing the item from me and choose option 2 or 3 then I would propose to add the extra amount outlined, to the original purchase price of £XX ie - option 3 ... 'International Signed For' would increase the purchase price by an extra £3.00 [approx A$7.50].

Once an agreement has been reached and you are happy to proceed, I would propose to alter the listing details to your preference in order to allow you to complete the purchase through Amazon with no forseen hitches, at a time convenient to yourself [bearing in mind the opposite time zones].

You would need to inform me in advance of the particular time you would prefer to purchase as changing the listing would then 'open' the item to all international buyers with the possibility of someone else purchasing before you have a chance to.

I look forward to your reply

best regards,

Xxxxxxxxxx.

---

He was happy to pay extra for option 2 [Airmail] and the item is now well on it's way to its destination.
I don't know this is wrong as per Amazon T&C's and while I could have funded the extra postage for airmail from the original cost of the item - he asked if I would consider posting to Australia - so I don't think that it is too much to rationalise the price to reflect this especially as I did point out that surface mail [upto 56 days] is all that overseas buyers pay for.

Anyway hopefully this might help someone if they are in a similar position.

elona

After a week of no sales - I have just sold a book!!:j :j :j

Amazombie

snax wrote:

I don't know this is wrong as per Amazon T&C's and while I could have funded the extra postage for airmail from the original cost of the item - he asked if I would consider posting to Australia - so I don't think that it is too much to rationalise the price to reflect this especially as I did point out that surface mail [upto 56 days] is all that overseas buyers pay for.

Actually the postage credit collected from the buyer and paid net to the seller after Amazons fee is for airmail delivery only. It has to be this way to enable the seller to meet the delivery times quoted to the buyer by Amazon.

This is what Amazon's guidelines to sellers says:

Estimated delivery times


UK First Class--1 day*
Western Europe--3-5 days*
Eastern Europe--3-5 days*
Outside Europe--5-10 days*

*Following day of posting.

Airmail

If you are posting overseas, you must use Airmail.
Note: Delivery delays can result in buyers leaving a negative rating on your account, revocation of the postage credit by Amazon.co.uk and even the termination of your account.

ruthiejane

Amazombie wrote:

Actually the postage credit collected from the buyer and paid net to the seller after Amazons fee is for airmail delivery only. It has to be this way to enable the seller to meet the delivery times quoted to the buyer by Amazon.

This is what Amazon's guidelines to sellers says:

Estimated delivery times


UK First Class--1 day*
Western Europe--3-5 days*
Eastern Europe--3-5 days*
Outside Europe--5-10 days*

*Following day of posting.

Airmail

If you are posting overseas, you must use Airmail.
Note: Delivery delays can result in buyers leaving a negative rating on your account, revocation of the postage credit by Amazon.co.uk and even the termination of your account.

Could you tell me where it says this, as I spent some time last night trying to find it. I have always used 1st class for the UK and airmail for the rest of the world. After reading this forum yesterday I was wondering if I was doing the right thing.
Thanks
Ruth

Amazombie

ruthiejane wrote:

Could you tell me where it says this, as I spent some time last night trying to find it. I have always used 1st class for the UK and airmail for the rest of the world. After reading this forum yesterday I was wondering if I was doing the right thing.
Thanks
Ruth

See towards the bottom of this page:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/202-5597293-2520647?ie=UTF8&nodeId=3149411

MattOsprey

Amazombie you are of course right.

Thanks for this.

It now makes me wonder why Amazon don't offer price add onns for books over a certain number of pages.

Greenmetropolis can manage it.

I now face the prospect of removing all my heavier books from intrernational delivery. This will let down customers when they would be willing to pay for the extra delivery cost.

Matt

apprentice_tycoon

MattOsprey wrote:

I now face the prospect of removing all my heavier books from intrernational delivery. This will let down customers when they would be willing to pay for the extra delivery cost.

Matt

Hi Matt, I think that FFM had an interesting idea about this when he suggested listing the book as UK delivery only for, say £5 and again another listing for International delivery for, say £10.

MattOsprey

Is anyone else having trouble signing in to Amazon?

Nothing happening for me.

Matt