selling your stuff on Amazon - part 7 - advice for newbies in the first post

funkyfunkymonkey

hilary1 wrote:

OMG

I've been typing them myself LOL:rotfl::rotfl:

Oh, whoops :rotfl:

Not no more though, eh?

FFM

BlueSkyDay

Hi all

I didn't read the Amazon Challenge properly and thought it was to sell 80 books in Nov / Dec as that's what the person posting 'above' me had put

I've only realised I should have set my own target since reading other people's posts. No matter - I wouldn't have set myself such a high target as I only started in November, but I've sold 55 books already so I might make it

Blue

porkev

hi blue,
just being nosey how many books do you list to sell that many as i have just started and need a bit of an idea, i currently have 14 items on and have sold 4 in 2 weeks, looks like i will have to try harder lol

cheers
porkev

elona

I just sold a book for over £25!!!!!!!:j :j

Have over 200 books listed and sell about three or four a week so hardly big business!

soolin

porkev wrote:

hi blue,
just being nosey how many books do you list to sell that many as i have just started and need a bit of an idea, i currently have 14 items on and have sold 4 in 2 weeks, looks like i will have to try harder lol

cheers
porkev

In case it helps I have almost 550 books listed and my current challenge sales are 28 against a target I set myself of 30. Actually I really didn't think I would make 30 in a month, but I seem to be doing very well.

I read the seller forum on Amazon and I completely and totally agree with the on/off switch theory where some sellers are switched on and some off at any given time on a random basis. I have gone over a week without sales before now, so you can see why my 28 sales are very unusual for me. At the moment sellers are suggesting that old books, or those listed for more than a year are selling better than usual, other times it seems newly listed books will sell. I've even seen weird patterns develop as to where my books sell, I once sold several to a small area in Lancashire, one after the other all to different people but all with virtually the same post code, how weird is that?

I rarely sell 1p books as I don't bother listing them, so most of my sales have been between 50p and £28 so far this month. my last pay out from Amazon was over £100.

Soo

Who still owes AT the most massive drink should they ever meet :beer:

funkyfunkymonkey

soolin wrote:

I read the seller forum on Amazon and I completely and totally agree with the on/off switch theory where some sellers are switched on and some off at any given time on a random basis. I have gone over a week without sales before now, so you can see why my 28 sales are very unusual for me. At the moment sellers are suggesting that old books, or those listed for more than a year are selling better than usual, other times it seems newly listed books will sell. I've even seen weird patterns develop as to where my books sell, I once sold several to a small area in Lancashire, one after the other all to different people but all with virtually the same post code, how weird is that?

Hi Soo

I hate to disagree with you, but the larger sellers totally dispute the 'switch' theory and I have to agree with them. If you only stock 500 books (and even me with my 4000+ stock) you will see 'erratic' sales patterns. The larger sellers such as Toms Bargain Books and Durnick only report 'sales lows' when there is a genuine down turn due to Amazon having an 'off-day'.

You will notice on the Amazon board that it is always the same sellers reporting that they have been 'switched off'. Durnick (or was it Priority) has been known to tell them that they need to work harder, get more stock, list it and then they will have sales - usually upsets a few of them.

FFM

soolin

The switch theory may well be random, and yes there are arguments on both sides, however for me it still seems odd that I can sell nothing for 10 days then sell 3 books in 4 hours. I can't even explain it away by assuming it was a college course or something, my books are completely random titles. Working harder for me makes no difference as I am selling from old stock.

The other thing that I wonder about is how Amazon search gets funny sometimes. I can certainly agree with some of the sellers when they say that if they search for a book sometimes they get 4 or 5 copies, yet an hour later on the same book they get pages of them. I posted a few days ago about trying to list a book using an ISBN that returned the wrong book for over 24 hours, yet when I went to try it again suddenly returned the correct book, and the fact that Looking for a Geoffrey of Monmouth book returned nothing nor did a search for *any* G of M book yet a few hours later I got a good choice including the book I wanted.

rooo

Sorry if it has been asked before, but why can't some items be listed? I have anew sealed DVD that I want to sell but the option is not there. It is a Disney DVD so is not unsuitable.

Aidy

rooo wrote:

Sorry if it has been asked before, but why can't some items be listed? I have anew sealed DVD that I want to sell but the option is not there. It is a Disney DVD so is not unsuitable.

Hi,

I think it often depends when the DVD was released. Amazon will sometimes like to sell the DVD themselves at launch, before allowing others to sell through their site (this is my view - not fact!!). The same often happens with new release CD's - can't sell for a few days after release.

Looking on the site now Cars can't be sold but Little Mermaid can.

Does this help?

BlueSkyDay

porkev wrote:

hi blue,
just being nosey how many books do you list to sell that many as i have just started and need a bit of an idea, i currently have 14 items on and have sold 4 in 2 weeks, looks like i will have to try harder lol

cheers
porkev

Hi porkev

I only have 70 books listed at the moment - and 30 of those were listed on Sunday. I think it's a combination of listing a few years' supply of self-help / personal development type books and selling very good quality books at a low price. A few games / unwanted dvds are included in the 55

I also got lucky with some great ratings early on, so that helps too, probably.

Hope that helps

Blue