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

SilverScooby

I sold one just before midnight Christmas Eve - very pleasant surprise.

Also sold another counselling book today, but then the buyer (who'd bought from me a few days before as well and left v good feedback) emailed saying they'd made a mistake, but send the book anyway if it was too much of a pain to cancel. I refunded straight away (my first refund, surprisingly easy) and got a very nice email back saying they'd emailed all their colleagues with my listing!

A couple of questions for all you "old hands":

I've seen listings where people manage to get carriage returns into the description when it displays, which to me makes them look neater than just one long line of text, How do you do this? I gues by inserting HTML codes in the listing?

Any ideas for what apart from books sell well? I'm getting a feel for books, but have no idea where to start with videos, LPs or CDs

teapot2

SilverScooby wrote:

Also sold another counselling book today

I sold a counselling book yesterday as well, have found that they tend to be pretty good sellers.

Re your other questions - haven't sold LPs myself but think from what I've read that unless they are rare and sought after its not worth listing them and if they are valuable then they will be seen more on Ebay rather than Amazon. I think people tend to car boot LPs mostly. Videos can be tricky as the Amazon postage allowance is low, many people have moved to DVD so again unless you have rare or sought after videos its probably not worth it. I'd check to see if you have anything worth listing as I have sold a few videos recently, one went for £10+ last week and I sold a Buffy boxset a few months ago for £18. I've got a few collectable videos listed other than that I don't bother. Not worth doing 1p video listings because of the postage as you will lose money. I seem to remember that the minimum its worth selling them for so that you make a small profit is either £1 or £1.50 [not sure which] again prob better to try carbooting them.
With CDs I've listed a few and I do sell them gradually and the price they go for is variable as with everything else. Again worth checking the numbers to see whether or not to list them and give it a go.

Good luck
Teapot

caravanlover

hi everyone

right i have never used amazon before not even to buy, i have decided to list a few books:D

i know these probably all sound like really daft questions, but it does say in the first section ask if you get stuck just ask, so i am:D

from what i have read and now really have brain ache ( thats not hard for me) you list the book at the price you want for it, its not like ebay where you have an auction ?? i am right so far:o

when it has been sold, you can only be paid direct to your account, with the price of the book, and the postage, less amazon fees.... with me so far.

so do amazon pay you, or the buyer of the book direct ??? what if they dont pay.. like you sometimes get on ebay...

how do i know what to put my books on for???

why did i ever start doing this ... totally confused now:eek:

thanks in advance everyone.. sorry you have probably heard these questions a million times over, but i dont want to c**k it up ....

funkyfunkymonkey

caravanlover wrote:

hi everyone

right i have never used amazon before not even to buy, i have decided to list a few books:D

i know these probably all sound like really daft questions, but it does say in the first section ask if you get stuck just ask, so i am:D

from what i have read and now really have brain ache ( thats not hard for me) you list the book at the price you want for it, its not like ebay where you have an auction ?? i am right so far:o

when it has been sold, you can only be paid direct to your account, with the price of the book, and the postage, less amazon fees.... with me so far.

so do amazon pay you, or the buyer of the book direct ??? what if they dont pay.. like you sometimes get on ebay...

how do i know what to put my books on for???

why did i ever start doing this ... totally confused now:eek:

thanks in advance everyone.. sorry you have probably heard these questions a million times over, but i dont want to c**k it up ....

Hi Caravan Lover

Welcome to the thread.

It is really easy to list and sell on Amazon. The sale is not 'complete' until Amazon have the buyer's money so, so long as the sale is showing in 'your account' you are safe to send the book. Amazon 'pay' you every 2 weeks automatically unless you request the money earlier, no more than once ever 24 or 48 hrs (not sure which 'cos I always wait for the 2 week pay day).

If you begin by listing a book, the first thing to do is identify the condition eg New, Like New, Very Good etc there are guidelines to try and ensure conformity - it is always best to under estimate rather than over estimate - that way the buyer will be pleased with the condition rather than disappointed.

Next describe the book, eg creased spine etc.

Then on the next page on the right hand top corner is a box that details how many of the book are already listed, if you click on the link you can decide how much you want to sell the book for. Be careful at this stage to know the weight of the book and how much it is going to cost you to post - you can almost ignore the Amazon 'postage allowance', you are interested in the bottom line - which you get on the next page.

You may want to start off just selling to the UK until you get the hang of postage rate variences depending on if you are sending to Europe or Worldwide - we've all made 'clangers' here by undercharging on medium weight books and having to then send them by Airmail - ouch!!!

When you click on continue after chosing your price, the next page gives you a summary of fees etc - the line you are interested in is the one that says how much the seller is going to receive, you need to make sure this will cover the postage and any packing costs.

Hope that helps, if I've missed something just ask.

FFM

jo_b_2

Typical - My first post-Christmas sale and it was for a book which would have netted me over a fiver after fees.

I've just hunted it down - remembering that it was still under my bed after 'one last read'....Trouble is a drink has obviously been spilt down there and the book is now badly water-damaged and unsellable.

I've obviously refunded the buyer and am just hoping that they don't leave bad feedback.

Hope New Year selling experiences improve. :rolleyes:

caravanlover

thanks funkyfunkymonkey, thats cleared up alot, i am now goona brave it and list some woo hoo:T :j :T

apprentice_tycoon

caravanlover wrote:

thanks funkyfunkymonkey, thats cleared up alot, i am now goona brave it and list some woo hoo:T :j :T

Good luck with it!

FFN has given you a push in the right direction so you'll be fine now but I would like to just add one thing to the advice he gave.

When you go to the page where all the other books as listed and you are trying to decide what price to go for - don't automatically assume that the people that have already listed their books know what they are doing, if someone has priced a big, heavy book at, say, £1 don't assume that they weighed it before listing it, they will lose money if it sells and so will anyone else picks a low price.

The only way to be certain that you'll make money and not lose it is to weigh the books yourself then check the postage costs.

caravanlover

thanks apprentice tycoon, i did wonder about that, but i have put all mine on in accordance with what they are selling for, there condition, and there weight

hey at the end of the day, i can only try, i have only put on five, they were all given to me by my mum, so if i only make say 50p, its 50p i did not have before trying,

thanks alot to all of you who have offered advice, will let you know when i have done some more or even better and got a sale:D

jo x

porkev

hi everyone
is it possible for me to have a sellers club number please as i intend to go for it in 2007, i started slowly towards the end of 2006 but still sold 11 items from 24 listings (in 3 months)which i was pleased with(no feedback yet though:rotfl: )

happy new year to you all

cheers:beer:

apprentice_tycoon

porkev wrote:

hi everyone
is it possible for me to have a sellers club number please

certainly, number 59 is next.

Good luck with your sales and don't worry, your first feedback will be along soon.