Selling on Amazon

clearingout

Have just had a massive text book clear out and put the whole lot up on Amazon. I know the answer to this is 'how long is a piece of string' but just how long does it take, on average, to sell?! And just how is it possible to make money on a half ton book when Amazon give you £2.26 towards posting, and you sell it for £0.01?! Are some people just plain daft or is it me that's missing something?!

soolin

I've had some books listed over 3 years and am now slowly working through my stock removing any that are not real sellers.

The ranking makes a difference, 4 figures means it should sell quite quickly as long as you are cheap, over 6 figures and it may take a while.

As for 1p books, many mega sellers have Royal mail accounts which means they get cheap ostage. For the rest of us if you can't make a profit then don't list the book, I probably discard around 75% of the books i buy as they are not worth listing.

clearingout

thanks for that. so not holding my breath to become a millionaire anytime soon then!

just a question - what is the 'ranking'. Is that where you lie in the list when it comes up?

soolin

clearingout wrote: »

thanks for that. so not holding my breath to become a millionaire anytime soon then!

just a question - what is the 'ranking'. Is that where you lie in the list when it comes up?

It's the ranking of the book. My explanations are notoriously complicated but if you go to the main page for the book as though you were going to buy it, about half way down the page it gives info about the book, including publisher, number of pages etc. Then underneath it shows ranking.

This book for instance is ranked 7470 which is quite good:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Illustrated-Eric-Terry-Pratchett/dp/0575096284/ref=pd_sim_b_3

clearingout

hmmm...with you now. Looks like I'll be waiting a while then as most of mine are in the millions!!!!!!!! Oh well!

porto_bello

Strangely, I approach bookselling on Amazon from completely the opposite angle! The books I buy and sell tend to be rare, obscure specialist items. They must be ranked near the bottom, in terms of popularity and often mine is only one of perhaps two available.

I buy them for £6-£10 each and they can linger for up to 18 months, but when they sell, they go for £80-£125 each, usually to a University or other academic body. I guess there's more than one way to make a profit on Amazon.

Crowqueen

Can you get an account with a Visa debit card or does it have to be a credit card?

soolin

porto_bello wrote: »

Strangely, I approach bookselling on Amazon from completely the opposite angle! The books I buy and sell tend to be rare, obscure specialist items. They must be ranked near the bottom, in terms of popularity and often mine is only one of perhaps two available.

I buy them for £6-£10 each and they can linger for up to 18 months, but when they sell, they go for £80-£125 each, usually to a University or other academic body. I guess there's more than one way to make a profit on Amazon.

I do use a bit of that tactic myself, I have specialist military books that go up to around the £200 mark, however they do not pay for my pro seller fees. I therefore carry a lot of books, over a thousand of betetr selling ones, no modern novels though, just to clear my 30 books a month i need to stay pro merchant. The specialist books sell infrequently but the main bulk sell in just enough quantity to keep me afloat, although the sales are really dying now.

Crowqueen wrote: »

Can you get an account with a Visa debit card or does it have to be a credit card?

The help pages, which are terrible, seem to suggest a debit card is sufficient. However it seems that Amazon no longer recognise a debit card and people have reported not being able to register a selling account without a credit card.

Crowqueen

OK, good to know, thanks Soo. My VISA card works with things that need a CC, so may try it, but I can see the logic in only wanting credit cards, eBay were the same way until they allowed verification by telephone number rather than CC.

teapot2

clearingout wrote: »

Have just had a massive text book clear out and put the whole lot up on Amazon. I know the answer to this is 'how long is a piece of string' but just how long does it take, on average, to sell?! And just how is it possible to make money on a half ton book when Amazon give you £2.26 towards posting, and you sell it for £0.01?! Are some people just plain daft or is it me that's missing something?!

Good luck with the selling clearing out - you might also want to check that you have the most current edition of the text books you are selling as some of them seem to be updated regularly. It will tell you on the product details page if theres a newer edition.

dlotus205

clearingout wrote: »

thanks for that. so not holding my breath to become a millionaire anytime soon then!

just a question - what is the 'ranking'. Is that where you lie in the list when it comes up?

I understand that the rate of commission is quite high but I am interested to know as to how much success people have had with it.

Thanks in advance.