Enough is enough - the great declutter

victory

I have put loads on ebay hopefully this time they will sell, I didn't think of amazon FFM will have a look in a bit, the rest is going to the charity shops:D huge amount of decluttering as house move is coming;)

bails

Don't know if Book Barn is a local thing then Missy, it's basically a huge barn where they sell secondhand books - I just wish the name wasn't so misleading You take your books in, they give you a price for them and then you get 50% when they sell - at least, that's how it was last time I went in to ask (haven't actually ever tried selling anything through them ).

Go Victory!

missyg_3

Got lots of auction items ending tonight, I've been on the scrounge for boxes here there and everywhere At the moment all but 4 items have bids which is a record for me, hence the box scramble. My office looks like Del Boy's flat once again!

Victory good luck with yours, crossing my fingers for you!

What it says on the tin then Bails?

I'm now going to attempt to file this tax return online... send in a search party if I don't reappear later!

missyg_3

Done, phew! Glad to get that over with. Back to ebaying! What's everyone else been up to today?

pigpen

I've done a big pile of absolutely nothing.. my RSI is playing up something chronic so I am strapped together for the next few days!

bails

Hmm, finding out Pigsback have put the number of PPs you need up! :mad: I was so close to having OH's surprise graduation pressie as well!

I've cleared out the sock drawer OH likes to wear any 2 socks together :doh:so I've put them all in pairs, got rid of some and created a Sock Amnesty drawer for all the single socks - if their partners turn up soon then they'll be saved, if not it's the dusters/ make a hand puppet pile for them

Nice one on your Ebaying Missy, OH has 20 watchers on his 1 item; I have none on one of mine and 6 on the other!
Sorry to hear about your RSI pigpen, nasty! I've spent the day under 3 duvets and still can't get warm.

funkyfunkymonkey

missyg wrote: »

Hello FFM nice to see you here! Thanks for those examples. My books are the hardback coffee-table type and although they are popular titles (Michael Palin's various BBC series) they are not selling on ebay at all even at rock bottom prices. I'm inclined to think they wouldn't have a chance on Amazon either. What's your gut feeling as an experienced seller?

Bails sorry to hear you haven't been well. I've not heard of Book Barn?

I'm having trouble concentrating today because of an outside issue affecting my house, so I don't think I will get much done as there's a lot of distraction. I don't want to start my tax return submission until I know I can do it in one sitting.

Gut feeling on coffee table books is get rid of them - but always check them out first you never know....

The way to work Amazon is to weigh your book, a typical coffee table book would weigh 2kg-4kg, so would cost £6.85 to post by Royal Mail Standard Parcel. Here's a typical Michael Palin hardback http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0563208260/ref=sr_1_olp_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207677311&sr=1-5 the cheapest you could list in order to break even would be £6.60 assuming you got your packaging free, which would put you so far down the list it would not be worth doing.

Check out the £3 copy being sold by Book Barns - I'm pretty sure that is the online store equivalent of what Bails was talking about. I think they get in quite a muddle with their shop vs online which is why their feedback is so poor.

I started this year's tax submission a couple of weeks ago and now need to wait to get a few interest statements etc in before I can finish - it is a pain when you can't finish it off in one sitting - I wish I didn't leave it so late each year - I usually get it in by the skin of my teeth. Last year I did it on line - that worked quite well.

FFM

funkyfunkymonkey

pigpen wrote: »

Exactly.. therefore the fees work out WAY higher than ebay fees.. which is what I said.. therefore if you are selling things for a few pence.. which in order to compete with most of the big time sellers who bulk buy for pence a copy or you have books which are thin/light but sought after you don't have a cat in hells chance of making anything...

if you sell a book for 1p.. you receive £1.41.. you have postage to cover out of that because as a seller you don't get the full postage cost, which you should! postage would be about £1.15 with recorded delivery... so you get 26p for your book!!! definitely not worth the bother.

Also.. I sold a vhs video.. 25p for the video.. they charged £3 (ish) postage.. of that I got 50p.. plus 25p for my video.. postage was 98p.

It was about then I decided not to bother! I have never been out of pocket selling on ebay.

You have hit the nail on the head pigpen! Do not waste time and effort listing 1p books on Amazon - there's more to life than 'turnover' - it's 'profit' you want.

I do not list anything on Amazon less that £1, you will be surprised how many buyers skip past all of the 1p listings and then buy the first book priced at what they consider to be a 'real' price.

I rely on my 'shop name', good feedback and a detailed description of the book to sell my books on Amazon. I have nearly 2000 feedback and buyers know they can trust me to deliver.

Amazon's fees for books are 17.25% of the sale price + 86p if you are not a pro-seller.

Ebay's fees for books are 10p listing fee, 9% final value fee, 3.4% + 20p paypal fee.

I've done a few sums and compared to Ebay I pay Amazon an extra 20p if I sell a £10 book, £1.16 if I sell a £30 book and £2.13 if I sell a £50 book.

Not bad in my opinion, as I have over 4000 listed on Amazon and I make a comfortable amount for very little effort, once listed the books stay listed.

I made more than £70 profit (after fees and P&P) last week on a book I sold, Amazon took plenty in fees, but the book was listed for over 9 months before selling - I call that a result - not sure if it would ever have sold on Ebay.

FFM

pigpen

funkyfunkymonkey wrote: »

You have hit the nail on the head pigpen! Do not waste time and effort listing 1p books on Amazon - there's more to life than 'turnover' - it's 'profit' you want.
...
I made more than £70 profit (after fees and P&P) last week on a book I sold, Amazon took plenty in fees, but the book was listed for over 9 months before selling - I call that a result - not sure if it would ever have sold on Ebay.

FFM

It is difficult not to list stuff cheap on amazon when it is a popular book and there are so many really really cheap..

and personally I wouldn't want to hang on to anything for 9 months that I wanted to get rid of.. I am way too impatient and when I want to fling it has about a month to get out for cash or else it goes to charity shop.. usually I have kept it for years before hand though.

The things I listed were removed after 3 months (sure it was 3 months) so maybe you only get to keep them on if you are a proseller as well??

funkyfunkymonkey

I think the difference between us is that I am selling as a business (although it started as decluttering :rotfl: you have been warned!!!) and you are trying to shift personal stuff.

Your approach is absolutely spot on if you are decluttering.

FFM