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

marje

I bought a book on e-bay for £2 and just out of interest looked it up on Amazon. It is definitely the same book (I have checked and checked) but three sellers on Amazon are selling it for £185+. On bookfinder.com it is also listed at these high prices. Is this real?

teapot2

Hi Marje,

unfortunately, listing and selling aint always the same thing! There are often silly prices for books listed waaaaay over what they are worth usually by american power sellers - the same listings come up on bookfinder as well. You may have a gem though - are there any new copies for sale which might be a more realistic guide? Have you checked it on Abebooks.co.uk to see if anyone is selling it there?

Depends really on what the book is and whether its rare or sought after etc etc - you'd need to say a bit more about it really.

Good luck with it
Teapot

mcallister1

Hi- I want to say a big thanks to everyone who contributes to this thread. I have been lurking for a week or two and folowing your advice have sold 15 books from my bookshelves and listed about 90. I have found all the advice and tips on here very helpful and have probably unwisely spent some of my profit on some more to sell.
I have also found it liberating to be able to give away some of the big heavy coffee table books that I didn't want but was always thinking...'but I should sell that because it is new...' , when I saw the price they were on Amazon was so low. Well, maybe I should have hung on to see if I can become a pro seller but I need the space for my new stock
So far I prefer it to ebay as it is so simple but reading the thread I see there are complications particularly with descriptuions. I started mine with despatch details but wonder if it is better to put the condition details in the first line as in the listings the first bit is what shows up. Or does it not make any differrence? Also do you email buyers with the condition details before you post to check its ok? I think I read someone saying they did that...or am I imagining things? I hate the idea of bad feedbackthat is undeserved:eek:

wendy_ann1983

I listed a load of bits on amazon a few hours ago, and just had a nice surprise (or so i thought) when one of my items has already sold. Then i noticed an email from the buyer saying that they wanted to combine items but for some reason it hadnt combined my item so could i do a refund, any advice?

funkyfunkymonkey

wendy_ann1983 wrote:

I listed a load of bits on amazon a few hours ago, and just had a nice surprise (or so i thought) when one of my items has already sold. Then i noticed an email from the buyer saying that they wanted to combine items but for some reason it hadnt combined my item so could i do a refund, any advice?

Hi Wendy

the buyer probably thought they could buy items from Market Place, spend over £15 and not have postage applied.

Your best bet is to just refund. It will cost you nothing and you can just relist - Amazon refund fees to you so you will not be out of pocket.

FFM

funkyfunkymonkey

mcallister1 wrote:

I started mine with despatch details but wonder if it is better to put the condition details in the first line as in the listings the first bit is what shows up. Or does it not make any differrence? Also do you email buyers with the condition details before you post to check its ok? I think I read someone saying they did that...or am I imagining things? I hate the idea of bad feedbackthat is undeserved:eek:

Hi

I think it is a very good idea to put the most important facts so that they can be seen in the first line without the buyer having to click on 'more...'

I don't email buyers with condition details, but I do send a copy with the highlighted relevant points if there is something I think is particularly noteworthy eg 'notes written in pencil', 'some sections highlighted', 'ex library book' etc

The problem with sending an email and asking if they want you to post it is that they may not reply if your message has been put into their spam filter or if they don't regularly check emails - then you're left thinking - hmm... do I send it?

We all dread horrible feedback, so I understand your quandary.

FFM

wendy_ann1983

funkyfunkymonkey wrote:

Hi Wendy

the buyer probably thought they could buy items from Market Place, spend over £15 and not have postage applied.

Your best bet is to just refund. It will cost you nothing and you can just relist - Amazon refund fees to you so you will not be out of pocket.

FFM

Thanks, i just did the refund. I got all excited at making £2.00, darn it.Oh well, i re listed it.

SilverScooby

Eager_Elephant wrote:

I have just signed up as a Pro-Merchant and although I can access the pre-order list I can't save it correctly.
I have tried to save it in Xcel and it asks me to put in the columns, is this correct or am I doing something wrong?

This is correct. Excel has an import wizard that puts text files like this one into columns so you can manipulate the data.
On the first screen click on Delimited, then Next
On the next screen there should be a tick on Tab, click Next
On the next screen click Finish (if you want to be fancy here you can format columns with ID numbers at Text so leading zeros display. This is handy as ISBNs have leading zeros)

Then you can play with it - the fun thing I found was sorting (Data - Sort) by descending Average Asking Price so you can see the things people are willing to pay most for.


PS I must have a big MOAN as my sales have really dried up. Last week they were slowing down, and have now stopped completely - nothing at all in February

Phil

hornetgirl

I saw a load of those little Observer books for sale at 20p each yesterday. I didn't buy them but wondered whether there might be a market for them. Has anyone had any success selling these?

marje

Thanks Teapot2 for your advice. The medical textbook I have bought is out of print and listed for £89 on abebooks - so maybe it is a good find.