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

rare_stuff

Hmmm!

I imagine that almost half, if not more, of your postal costs are the over 2kilos parcels and the international airmail items. As I only have knowledge of large letters and packets I can't fully advise. But normal letters would fall within the scope of a PPI account. If you were spending that amount purely on letters/large letters/packets sent within the uk you would probably save at least £100 a month I would imagine. I'd really be better advising you to call RM and and enquire yourself, you save a lot of money and imagine the amount of time in the post office queue!

Here's my aprox daily post, on a good day!

12 large letters, sent second class as I post every day, few weigh more than 750gm, most weigh under 250gm, thererfore the average usually is under 250gm. that means that all of these 12 I pay the 100-250gm rate.

15 packets, this is where the saving really works in favour of a bookseller, the majority of paperbacks fall into this category and usually weigh 300gm, but as I do stock a number of hardbacks etc the weight of these is often much higher. But as you are paying for the average weight it usually works out as under 500gm, and the few times it doesn't it's usually simple to manipulate the average by moving up a borderline large letter to a packet to bring the average weight down. Or even delay a heavy item by a day if you have to many in one day so as to spread the average.

Occasionally the average weight of large letters does break the 250gm limit, but it is rare if this can't be manipulated by upgrading a borderline heavy item to packet, or even inclding a light 'dummy' package to 'test the delivery times'

One of the other advantages is that as you are using a printed postal impression, either as a sticker or stamp, their is no post mark to indicate when it was posted!

It's a great feeling to send a heavy book and know it cost less than £1.40 to send it and knowing that those non-account holders would be having to pay £5 to send! This also explains somewhat why it is not sensible to price match on heavier books as account holders can't make a loss on postage when sending big heavy books that have sold for a penny unless it actually weighs over 2 kilos.

My local post office are quite relieved that I now use this and only pay for airmail there, they are even happy for me to drop off my mail for collection, though this was sweetened by a half case of wine for the staff and a half slab of ale for the postie collecting the mail at christmas. They aren't obligated to offer this service to PPI customers, but as I have to go to the post office most days, this saves me having to buy in to the collection service that most PPI customers are expected to use. If you opt for collection this will cost about £500 a year for a 4pm (ish) pick up, or £250 for a 2pm (ish pick up, though depending on your location on postal routes you may only have the choice of one service. If you are spending over £15,000 a year you get this service free, but I don't expect many here to qualify for that!

Hope that was helpful and if you have any questions, the royal mail website has most of the info and contact numbers required.

Kaminari_2

Whoa rare_stuff! Seems there is a whole other world little sellers don't know about. Thanks for that post!

apprentice_tycoon

Hi rare, thank you for the detailled answer

You are right with the assumption that majority of the money I spend is for airmail parcels so maybe there isn't a lot that I can do to reduce it, but at least I have the bonus of my Tesco clubcard deals

mishkanorman

I have a few questions that only you guys could give an opinion on !

Is there anything to stop me opening another account and listing all my items under 2 different names ? (I think i spotted a seller doing this and wondered if it is/can be done)

I am looking into using kangaroo pouches for my books (like really thick bin bags, in blue) would you think this is one step too far down the cheap/non professional road. (the book would be wrapped in bubble wrap first)

Can you advertise in listings a refund on extra buys - i have several series from different authors and they sell for £10+ so to incourage additional purchases I would like to offer an incentive like free postage on 2+ buys.


TIA


mishka


just had a look and im all on my own here how sad

apprentice_tycoon

mishkanorman wrote:

I have a few questions that only you guys could give an opinion on !

Is there anything to stop me opening another account and listing all my items under 2 different names ? (I think i spotted a seller doing this and wondered if it is/can be done)

I am looking into using kangaroo pouches for my books (like really thick bin bags, in blue) would you think this is one step too far down the cheap/non professional road. (the book would be wrapped in bubble wrap first)

Can you advertise in listings a refund on extra buys - i have several series from different authors and they sell for £10+ so to incourage additional purchases I would like to offer an incentive like free postage on 2+ buys.


TIA


mishka


just had a look and im all on my own here how sad

I'm equally sad too!

don't know about the first question, sounds a bit suspect to have 2 names with the same listings

I use thick plastic bags for larger-than-jiffy books, I use the B&Q type rubble bags sometimes too, are they the same kind of thing?

I've listed things in a series with refunds for multiple purchases, I assume that it's OK, maybe we'll be put right on this later....

sara2323

mishkanorman wrote:

I have a few questions that only you guys could give an opinion on !

Is there anything to stop me opening another account and listing all my items under 2 different names ? (I think i spotted a seller doing this and wondered if it is/can be done)


I opened another account around December, I had'nt realised that this was'nt allowed on Amazon.
The new account was closed within about 30 days by Sentinel and I was reffered to the Participation agreement which stated that only one account could be operated at a time.
Although when checking with Amazon Customer Services I was told that I could operate two accounts ??? and the reason for my account closure was that I'd used the same bank details and the account was promptly closed as soon as I'd tried to transfer money.
I have seen a few sellers on Amazon who appear to have two accounts, so does seem possible??

funkyfunkymonkey

apprentice_tycoon wrote:

I'm equally sad too!

don't know about the first question, sounds a bit suspect to have 2 names with the same listings

I use thick plastic bags for larger-than-jiffy books, I use the B&Q type rubble bags sometimes too, are they the same kind of thing?

I've listed things in a series with refunds for multiple purchases, I assume that it's OK, maybe we'll be put right on this later....

Hi Mishka and AT

I'm fairly sure that you are not allowed more than one account on Amazon, if I'm wrong then Rupert or Amazombie will correct me.

There have been discussions on this on the Amazon Board from time to time and I think someone did contact Customer Services and they agreed that they could have a buying account and a selling account, but could not sell on both accounts.

There are some sellers who clearly duplicate their listings on separate accounts, they are not usually very well disguised either.

FFM

wilf55

hi just wondering dont know the answer to the question above but why would you want 2 accounts....

debs

rare_stuff

wilf55 wrote:

hi just wondering dont know the answer to the question above but why would you want 2 accounts....

debs

2 accounts would increase your visibility in listings by 100%. it is well known that a couple of big sellers have this arrangement "aabooksuk" & "lessforubooks" or something like that, due to the volume of stock they sell and the fees they pay amazon this appears to be permitted. As with amazon cash is king, this is the reason many american sellers are permitted to exist on amazon with feedback consistantly below 90%, a normal seller would soon get warned about this level of feedback and have their account closed unless they rectified it. i am aware of sellers being threatened with 90 day account suspension for things that some big sellers do as standard practice.

But as has been said having 2 accounts for selling is a big NO, you will not only earn the derision of your peers, you risk having both accounts closed, especially if it is obvious that you are using it to duplicate your listings. there may be permitted cases if you were using one account for new stock and one for used, or were selling totally different stock on each account, but do you really wish to risk your account being closed?


Apologies if I have repeaeted myself in this post, it is saturday night / sunday morningg!!!

rare_stuff

mishkanorman wrote:

I am looking into using kangaroo pouches for my books (like really thick bin bags, in blue) would you think this is one step too far down the cheap/non professional road. (the book would be wrapped in bubble wrap first)

Can you advertise in listings a refund on extra buys - i have several series from different authors and they sell for £10+ so to incourage additional purchases I would like to offer an incentive like free postage on 2+ buys.

I rambled on about your first query in my earlier post, hopefully I won't ramble on too much answering these.

I have no idea what kangaroo pouches are or what they look like, but if they look professional and serve their purpose I can't imagine most buyers having a problem, though if it was seen by a buyer as either poorly packed or scruffy their first impression of it may be translated into feedback. Though am aware of one rather eccentric seller who recycles fishfinger packets to act as stiffeners/protectors for his books and he maintains 100% feedback!!

As for offering discounts /refunds on multiple purchases, it may depend on how may of these you will sell as to whether their are repercussions due to your refund rate increasing. If your refund rate rises above 5% either in volume or value you will receive automated warnings, if it continues their maybe further intervention. Though I am aware of a professional seller who does offer a buy one get one free (bogof) offer on some of his stock, he did have to get written permission to do so due to the number of refunds he would be making on a regular basis. I'm not 100% sure if he still is operating this offer, but as far as I am aware it is the only example of a seller offering this kind of deal on amazon. Though it is not unusual for sellers to advertise deals available on multiple purchases, most of these are for 3 or more orders.

Hope that's helpful to you Mishka