selling your stuff on Amazon - part 8 - advice for newbies in the first 2 posts

boston_uk

Regrettably, I think even the Wyndham Firsts of the Penguin series dont sell for much.

Not so much the money, more that I had no idea how they knew the year!!! There is no reprint number or year in mine but I knew it couldnt be 1954 at that price ....

Anyway thanks for that! I shall list it anyway I think and describe well and see what happens!

Tweek_1984

I've had a bit of a busy weekend after buying a new batch of books and listing them all weekend. Anyways, I have a few questions:

1.

apprentice_tycoon wrote:

Sorry, I was using 'jiffy' as a generic term, Mail Lite are the cheapest that Viking sell and if you use size D/1 and F/3 they will cover about 75% of your book sizes, larger ones get wrapped in bubble and plastic

I've ordered a box of 100 D/1 and a box of 50 F/3 from viking direct. It came to about 25 quid after VAT and delivery. Hope that sounds about right.

When you say 'larger ones get wrapped in bubble and plastic', what do you mean by that? What type of plastic? I presume you get the bubblewrap from ebay? How do you put an address on the front of that? Is it not aesthetically unpleasing for the customer?

2. I'm a bit annoyed and confused at the moment about the post office. I use a busy one near me in Manchester (I'm a student) and I get a variable service. There is one guy who knows my face now, who is really nice and he puts alot of my stuff through at 55p. Now, theres another chap I don't like being served by because I think he rips me off.

Take today for example. I have 5 books to send. 4 of them are in size D/1 envelopes and under 500g and the other 1 is in an F/3 sized envelope at 600g. He charged me 1.77 for the large one and 1.39 for the others. It came to 7.33. I sold my 5 books for a grand total of just under 11 quid. After the price of the envelopes, I was looking at 3.50 for profit. I just find this a bit off.

People have talked about self-pricing the packages and printing off the stamps online. Would this be more favourable? Can anybody give me the low-down on this.

3. Can somebody also give me the low-down on the spreadsheet that people have been talking about. I'm keen to work out exactly what I'm making profit wise.

Sometimes I'm not sure its worth the effort and then other times I see to make quite a bit of cash.

Anyways, any advice/info will be much appreciated.

Cheers. :wave:

soolin

Tweek,re postage. It all depends on the depth of the book. If a book is thin enough to go as a large letter then it is usually an awful lot cheaper than having to send it as a package. It might be today that your books were just too thick to go as letters. Post offices can vary, my local one says that anything that touches the side of the size guage is a package, so I pay extra, whereas the large post office will let things go as long as they go through the slot withut too much trouble. On Friday I had terribel problems and ended up going to my local PO and I reckon the 15 or so packages I sent cost me an additional £7 in postage due to their interpretation of the rules.

If you are going to do your own postage at home firstly get yourself a gauge so you can tell if stuff is a letter or not. Also, you run the risk if you do your own postage of losing out for non delivered books as without the Post Office proof of posting slips they are unlikely to pay out on lost items.

Soo

Bella13_2

Tweek_1984 wrote:

I've had a bit of a busy weekend after buying a new batch of books and listing them all weekend. Anyways, I have a few questions:

2. I'm a bit annoyed and confused at the moment about the post office. I use a busy one near me in Manchester (I'm a student) and I get a variable service. There is one guy who knows my face now, who is really nice and he puts alot of my stuff through at 55p. Now, theres another chap I don't like being served by because I think he rips me off.

Take today for example. I have 5 books to send. 4 of them are in size D/1 envelopes and under 500g and the other 1 is in an F/3 sized envelope at 600g. He charged me 1.77 for the large one and 1.39 for the others. It came to 7.33. I sold my 5 books for a grand total of just under 11 quid. After the price of the envelopes, I was looking at 3.50 for profit. I just find this a bit off.

People have talked about self-pricing the packages and printing off the stamps online. Would this be more favourable? Can anybody give me the low-down on this.

Sometimes I'm not sure its worth the effort and then other times I see to make quite a bit of cash.

Anyways, any advice/info will be much appreciated.

Cheers. :wave:

Looks like you were charged the second class packet rate for your items - sorry, I know you've posted the envelope sizes, but I can never remember which size is which. Do you have one of the cardboard sizing guides to check your items? (It has actual slots you can put your package through). I got one from Royal Mail and it has proved very useful, like the other day when the PO lady tried to charge me packet rate, I said "I think that it is large letter size, not packet" - she then went to check it and I was right (which I knew I would be because of my cardboard sizer :rotfl: .) It just gives me the confidence to dispute it if they automatically try and use packet rate, which they sometimes do, thinking they know better. I need to find the link, as I have a feeling the link I have just found on the RM site is just for their paper leaflet.

Tweek_1984

Yes, I have the paper leaflet guide. I didn't check today but these books weren't especially thick.

He even tried fitting them through his guide and they blatantly would go. But I think he personally, like soolin says, interprets the rules that if the package touches the sides of the slot, then its classed as a packet.

Which is wrong in my opinion.

I'd be willing to pay out for non-delivered items. I never keep the receipts from the PO anyways. I will do from now on though!

apprentice_tycoon

Hi tweek,

Your question about wrapping larger books? ones that are too big for a jiffy (I seem to buy a lot of large arty, crafty type books) get wrapped in bubble, I use large bubbled bubble wrap because that's what I have at home for my ebay china sales, then the book gets wrapped in the thick plastic from nice carrier bags like Lakeland or if I don't have any of those I use un-opened thick bin bags, if you pull them tight and tape with thick parcel tape they can look very respectable, I then use a documents enclosed pouch for the packing slip.

I have to share my latest triumph :j :j :j

At an auction a couple of weeks ago there was one lot made up of 3 huge boxes of war etc. videos and a few books, no-one was interested (including me if I'm honest) I put a half hearted bid in for £10 and no-one topped it.

I got them home and sorted them out, there were 15 books and I stopped counting the videos when I got past about 105. I just sold one of them, this covered all my auction and Amazon costs in ONE go - all the rest are FREE

porkev

hi everyone,
well done A.T. isn't it horrible when that happens, you think you have bought a right pup, then it turns out like that::eek:
as i say well done, it gives the rest of us some inspiration:T

cheers:beer:

hornetgirl

I'm so happy - got home from work and had 4 SDN emails! The most I've ever had in a day before is 2. Best sale was two French language cassettes for £20.

jo_b_2

hornetgirl wrote:

I'm so happy - got home from work and had 4 SDN emails! The most I've ever had in a day before is 2. Best sale was two French language cassettes for £20.

Congrats hornetgirl! :T

I'm not having a very good day Amazon-wise.:(

I sold a book shortly after Christmas but when I went to find it, it had been damaged. I emailed the buyer immediately explained that I no longer had the book fit for sale and refunded the full amount.

I've received this email today:

"This order was placed on 27th December. I have had a refund on my
credit bill, but still wish to receive the book. Please advise if this is in
hand."

Looks as though the buyer is expecting me to send the book for nothing! I'll obviously reply to the buyer, but suspect that this will lead to negative feedback.

teapot2

Congrats to those who are selling well and commiserations to those who are having probs. Me? Am having a whinge cos no sales for over a week, that's after a very good week when I was nearly tempted by the half-price pro-merchant but now very glad I didn't sign up :eek:

Good luck everyone
Teapot