Books to sell - Amazon or Ebay

photolc

Hi

I have a lot of old books to sell, all in pretty good condition most having only been read once.

I was looking at either Amazon or Ebay - the fees seem comparable.

What are peoples experiencies ?

What is recommended for a newbie ?

Thanks....

Mollycat13

I've used both ebay and amazon.

For books I'd recommend Amazon. Details are autofilled by the ISBN. All you need to give is the condition and price.
Also, the listing is for much longer (can't remember how long)
It is set for a fixed price and you know upfront how much you'll get if sold.
Once sold, Amazon automatically transfers the cash into you bank account after a set amount of time.
No feedback quarrels like ebay either.

The process is just so much easier with Amazon. Provided you check your email daily, you can just sit back and wait for the sales.

julie1075

Or if you don't think you'll get much for them try greenmetropolis.com it gives you £3.00 for each one it sells

Redvee

Amazon lists the item till it sells, when I started doing this it was 3 months/90 days.

jumbojuice

There is also a site called fatbrain.co.uk that buys text books off you if you type in the barcode a la tradeyourstuff.co.uk and musicmagpie

Horseunderwater

Redvee wrote: »

Amazon lists the item till it sells, when I started doing this it was 3 months/90 days.

And when did you start selling on there?
So far as I know it was only ever 60 days for non Pro merchant sellers and I've been on there since early 2002.
But then we used to get a nice postal credit of £3.75 instead of the measly £2.75 that at beginning of 2010 became £2.80.
All listings will stay live now for all sellers until they either sell or you delist the item as it sells elsewhere.
To the OP:
If you have any books with an ISBN on them, you must use that reference and you need to add it into the comments in the 1st 200 characters as well. This applies to any book from 1973. If you do it as you list now, you will not need to go through in Feb next year and do them all at that point. Amazon have issued a warning that any listing missing this info will be removed. It's being done to stop duplicate listings with ISBN's and yes there are many.
Of course books without one, may have SBN or none can still be searched for using advanced search by title/author/publisher/year combo. Seems to bring up 90% of the books I need to list. these will be prior to 1973. I also suggest that you add brief comments stating book and DJ condition if present. Normally you no longer need to add synopsis, but subject if non fiction can be helpful. All this will help your listing look better. And weigh the books and look up approx postage costs on Royal mail web site. Anything over 500g, think - is it too heavy to list for overseas. 500g book print paper rate costs £6.48 for rest of world, but eurozone is £3.71. So before you confirm listing, the amount you will get on a sale will be displayed on last page. Will that cover your costs and make you a profit? Try not to fall into the 1p trap. If non Pro merch a book will yield £1.46 after costs. Only books that are light and slim for UK and upto 500g Large letter can be covered by that and still make a little money. However, if you go for the Pro merch approach, you will get £2.32 or so for a 1p book, so you will have a little more leeway, but this is really only viable if you sell more than 40 books in a month as it costs £28.75 every month.
I hope that this will help you to trade with your eyes wide open and to make a success out of it.
Frances

soolin

Redvee wrote: »

Amazon lists the item till it sells, when I started doing this it was 3 months/90 days.

It has been 2 years now for years but I no longer get any notification when they do expire.

photolc

Just like to say Thanks to everyone who replied.

Looks like Amazon is the way to go... Will stick a few on and see how I get on. If not I will try greenmetroplis or fatbrain.

fill_up

I have also been thinking of selling some books on Amazon. When I started to register as a seller, they asked for a business name. Does this mean you have to be a registered business to sell with them or can you just select a random name and sell as you would on ebay?

Have you gone through the charges to see if it is really cheaper than ebay, there looked to be some significant fees with amazon as well.

soolin

fill_up wrote: »

I have also been thinking of selling some books on Amazon. When I started to register as a seller, they asked for a business name. Does this mean you have to be a registered business to sell with them or can you just select a random name and sell as you would on ebay?

Have you gone through the charges to see if it is really cheaper than ebay, there looked to be some significant fees with amazon as well.

The 'business' name is just the name that will show up next to your books on Amazon- you cna be anything you want. As for the fees, yes they are generally higher than ebay but with the advantage you don't have to pay to list so they can sit there for months without incurring charges. Just be very careful that you look at th enet proceeds you will be getting before you confirm the Amazon listing as those net proceeds include the postage credit- so you need to be able to post them out within that cost.

There is a lengthy thread here with some useful info in the first couple of posts

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2171713

Ellie_B

I've sold books on Amazon and ebay, and find Amazon much more friendly and easy to use!
Sold more on there than on ebay too!