Selling books online

lincroft1710

soolin wrote: »

Most of my local charity shops are becoming reluctant to take large quantities of fiction now and most tend to pile them high and sell for donations only- or 4 for £1 type of thing.

Local Salvation Army bookshop often has several copies of non-fiction works, a few weeks ago I noticed they had 4 or 5 copies of the Observer's Book of Birds, and 2 or 3 of some recent titles by celebrities.

lincroft1710

watson_jen wrote: »

I've never had much success selling books online. Perhaps you'd have more luck at a carboot?

Even a few years ago had only limited success with books at car boot. Only person I saw doing well was an old guy with hundreds of books many 50/60 years old all priced at 10 pence each! Which from memory meant he would have to sell 80 books just to pay the pitch fee.

DebtFreeWannaBE

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Did you read the post previous to yours?

People have been doing this for years in the UK, but the bottom has now dropped out of the market.

Well he seems to still be doing just fine. You guys really jump on newbies don't you? It doesn't really encourage people to stick around.

lincroft1710

DebtFreeWannaBE wrote: »

Well he seems to still be doing just fine. You guys really jump on newbies don't you? It doesn't really encourage people to stick around.

You are from the US, and I would remind you this is a UK site and as has been explained, things are different over here. Your uncle has found a gap in the market and I wish him well. What he is doing is now difficult in the UK as previous posters have explained.

Many secondhand bookshops (bookstores) in the UK have closed in recent years. High overheads, dwindling customer base, competition from eBay. Now eBay bookstores are going the same way.

The US probably has more bibliophiles per head of population than the UK, so your uncle has a bigger market.

I cannot see anything offensive in my post. It was advice and information, not an attack. At the risk of offending you again, you seem rather sensitive.

lincroft1710

soolin wrote: »

On any commuter train here you will rarely see anyone reading a book, everyone uses e readers, tablets or phones.

Actually today saw someone (elderly guy) reading book on 3 mile max bus journey.

mickeymouse303

I also have 100s of books and took to Amazon thinking I was sitting on a fortune. I sold around 20 books and didn't even make £20 overall because Amazon takes more than half of the money. I was astounded to be honest, especially as I sold one of my books for £12 and I didn't even get half of the money from that! I'm not sure if there are better places than Amazon for selling your books, but I wouldn't recommend Amazon!

lala333

ebay and amazon can help you to sell

Proxima_Centauri

I find with more unusual books (as opposed to bestsellers and paperbacks) it is often worth listing them on EBay or Amazon. I sold a hard-to-get-hold-of book on EBay for about £12, and the postage was only around £3. But generally I agree that for the very popular fiction books, you are having to compete with sellers on amazon who in many cases are selling for £0.01 (!), so not worth it.

[Deleted User]

mickeymouse303 wrote: »

I also have 100s of books and took to Amazon thinking I was sitting on a fortune. I sold around 20 books and didn't even make £20 overall because Amazon takes more than half of the money. I was astounded to be honest, especially as I sold one of my books for £12 and I didn't even get half of the money from that! I'm not sure if there are better places than Amazon for selling your books, but I wouldn't recommend Amazon!

I can't understand how you sold a book for £12 and didn't even get half the money for it:eek:. I recently sold one for £20 and got £15 back for the book. Still exorbitant fees but better than having a £20 book lying fallow unsold for years:). Then there was the £2.80 postal credit and as the book was very slim and light it went as a Large Letter and I made something on the postage there;).

Could you explain please how you 'took' the books to Amazon? I sell on there quite a lot (although I agree with you that fees are a pain:(). At least they get the online coverage though and most sell eventually if they are the more 'in demand books'.

Did you mean you use their Fulfilled by Amazon programme, where you send a whole batch to them for them to store and post on your behalf? I've heard of people taking their boxes full of books direct to the fulfilment centre themselves instead of having them collected and couriered. The volume of books I sell I didn't think it was worthy my while price-wise and I've got a few hundred listed myself.

abimonster02

Hi all
Does anyone know if for sites such as ziffit, zapper, music magpie if a bank account or Paypal address can be linked to more than one user account? Thanks