selling your stuff on Amazon - part 9 - advice for newbies in the first 2 posts

larmy16

I have stopped buying books from charity shops - too hit and miss for me and I found I was spending too much on them. I started selling on Amazon all gung ho but recently have got tired of having so many books around the house!

I am currently selling off old stock - may only sell 2 a week - it used to be about 2 a day when I started! My advice would be to buy from jumble sales, or school fetes when they sell them off at say five for a pound or whatever. Much cheaper mistakes then.

For example I recently saw a book on James Dean in a charity shop. When I got home, I saw that the title was worth about £15 so went all the way back (petrol, time etc) and bought it. When I got home, entered the ISBN and it was a different edition worth about £3.00. It would cost a fortune to post, so back to the charity shop it goes. Some people take down the ISBN before they buy - much better idea.

All in all I have made on Amazon, but I have lost quite a bit on dud books too.

I am coming out of my addiction to Amazon, just as I did from Ebay!

Good luck though.

rare_stuff

avfc4life wrote: »

Do most of the people on here just sell off spare items from their house that they do not want anymore or do you go around charity shops and buy cheap items to sell on amazon? If the latter do you make much money or are most of the items worth about what you paid for them and so make no profit?

To do this successfully you really need to have a very large list of books you know are worth money in your head, and a lot of luck to actually find them in charity shops, especially as most charity shops will have one or 2 amazombies a day checking the shelves out!!

Also what are the best things to sell? Ive listed a few games that i dont want anymore but have only sold one and it doesnt look like i will sell anymore. I would like to start looking around the charity shops for bargain books to make a profit on but does it work in reality?

Anything you can buy cheaply tat will sell quickly for a profit!

Also do you just go into the charity shops to have a look around and buy what you think will sell or do you go in there knowing what you are looking for and hoping or even go in there have a look, check what they are worth then go back and buy them?

Doing the latter would be quite time consuming, most people I know that do this with some success have a specialism or 2 and their specialist knowledge of subjects or authors means they can spot what will sell and what won't.

Hope you can help Thanks

Good luck, but I wouldn't want to say you can make a living out of it easily, in fact it can be pretty damn hard work!

boston_uk

Don't forget the dreaded tax man - it all needs to be declared if you buy to sell for profit - one reason I am only selling mine and my OH's excess for now.

tsharp

I, like the posts above, have had some successes, and a few wipeouts. Namely a Haynes Manual for a Jaguar E type bought in a '3 for £1' deal so effectively cost me 33p, sold for £14.99 plus £3 p&p. I bought some more Haynes Manuals for old/specialist cars, they are still sitting here!

Recently bought a lego star wars kit for £1.75, now currently on ebay for £6.50 with 16 watchers!

So in future i will be looking out for these items again, but it really is hit and miss, but that's part of the fun.

wilf55

i found my lost book and the customer still wants it and said keep the discount i offered in case i ever come across the hardback version!!!!!!

apprentice_tycoon

wilf55 wrote: »

i found my lost book and the customer still wants it and said keep the discount i offered in case i ever come across the hardback version!!!!!!

what a great outcome, restores your faith doesn't it?

soolin

I've got a really really dim question...:o

I've just been updating my officil tax records and I notice that when I receive my money from Amazon I have Marketplace fees and Z shop fees as well..is that right?

I've had a look on Amazon and I haven't got any z shop listings, yet my last invoice showed
Fees (includes applicable VAT) -£3.75
Seller Fee (includes applicable VAT)s -£25.00

I sort of assume that is my pro merchant costs , am I correct?

(Told you it was a dim question )

rare_stuff

soolin wrote: »

I sort of assume that is my pro merchant costs , am I correct?

(Told you it was a dim question )

Not a dim question at all, just amazon doing there best to confuse as usual. You're correct in assuming these are just plain old fees, I'm assuming they are for a period you were subscribed to the Pro-Merchant scheme.

boston_uk

wilf55 wrote: »

i found my lost book and the customer still wants it and said keep the discount i offered in case i ever come across the hardback version!!!!!!

Brilliant!!!! See - mostly folks are nice - its only the few daft b*ggers that we get to moan about on here makes us think they are all like that.

boston_uk

Bet they don't reduce the fees if they do away with z-shops though...

Does anyone bother much to categorise their books in their shop? I used to religiously but now I am not bothering - not sure it makes any difference - what is the general consensus?