Selling on Amazon

lynney88

Hi all I'd love to increase my income by selling many of the hundreds of books I own and was wondering if anyone sold on Amazon and ho they feel about it.

For example: Is it easy? Is it worthwhile?


Thanks in advance

Lynne
xx

yonk

I sold off a lot of books a few years ago. It's much more established now but books still sell, if they are of interest. Textbooks sell very well but I would imagine the competition in the paperback market is very tough. Check the postage for a book too as it's more expensive to send them now and you only get a fixed amount.

PlutoinCapricorn

Lynne, from the other side: when my library hasn't got a book I want, I check eBay first as they are often cheaper. Amazon often has the best prices for new books, but second hand have a large p and p charge. I get cashback too if I buy on eBay. I admit on one occasion Amazon did have the best deal for a 2nd hand book though.

CWSmith

My daughter sold most of her Vet text books on Amazon and they sold very quickly indeed. Despite not being the latest editions and having been bought 2nd hand by daughter, she ended up getting more than she paid for most of them. She just made sure to be a tiny bit cheaper than the cheapest book already listed.

We've tried selling other books on there since then, with no success at all!

quinechinoise

lynney88 wrote: »

Is it easy? Is it worthwhile?

Super-duper easy. Not worthwhile.

All you need is the ISBN from the back cover, set your price and grade the book condition. Buyers don't query you, return items or leave negative feedback. In fact, 99 times out of 100 they don't leave any feedback. There is zero interaction and huge apathy. Amazon handles the money and dumps it in your bank account in regular intervals unless you ask them to do it sooner.

Unless you have a bunch of rare or valuable books, you'll make peanuts. Old, OOP or textbooks that are still useable (i.e. the content isn't instantly out-of-date) might be worthwhile. Amazon fees are quite high and you can't adjust the shipping rate.

If you have something you think is worth selling, go for it. It's free to list and you can list/re-list indefinitely. Just make sure that the list price plus Amazon flat-rate shipping is at least a few pence more than the Amazon fees plus postage costs. Selling a heavy book for pennies will make a huge loss. And don't try to undercut the pro-sellers, listing at pennies - they have smaller fees, can bear a loss-leader or two and will keep adjusting their prices downwards.

quinechinoise

Actually, thinking about it further, unless your books are particularly rare or otherwise attractive then I would also add that selling books probably isn't particularly lucrative anywhere. If you can't sell them on Amazon, you probably can't sell them on Ebay (unless it's an incredibly light book that you can ship very cheaply). I've certainly never sold anything on Green Metropolis. Are there any other "big name" book selling sites?

Tbh, I'd suggest you pick out the few that you think have a shot at selling and give the rest to a charity shop. Maybe not even a national charity - perhaps one of those "friends of" organisations e.g. local church, school PTA, local charity, etc. A "friends of" book stall will price them to sell (i.e. at pennies), the money will go to a good cause and you'll de-clutter your home - which is worth something, even if it isn't cash.

shmeeko69

lynney88 wrote: »

Hi all I'd love to increase my income by selling many of the hundreds of books I own and was wondering if anyone sold on Amazon and ho they feel about it.

For example: Is it easy? Is it worthwhile?


Thanks in advance

Lynne
xx

Hi Lynne,

Without putting an dampener on your quest for more book sales, we're unfortunately in the digital age and for every psychical book that Amazon sells they have sales for approximately four Kindle/E-book Readers.

I personally prefer a real book to a digital one, but the marketplace is now saying something different and heading in a strange direction.

Mark

aeb_2

They won't sell very quickly but listing is free and very quick and they sit there for ever (I think)

Be careful your postage is not too high or it's not worth it. as you are listing it tells you what fees you will pay and how much you get. You pay the postage out of this final amount remember.

I quite often sell a book where I am not the lowest price. Perhaps some buyers like it to be shipped from the UK or try to support a small seller (my feedback is 8:rotfl:)

I just looked, I have 124 listed at present and I have sold on average 2 a month during the last two years. Only OK if you don't need the space or the cash quickly.

ps - I've only sold OOP text books, I don't know about fiction.

pps - I once sold one back to the author who wrote to thank me.

quinechinoise

shmeeko69 wrote: »

we're unfortunately in the digital age and for every psychical book that Amazon sells they have sales for approximately four Kindle/E-book Readers.

This is true for me; nearly all the books I buy these days are on my Kindle. The only "real" printed books I buy nowadays are cookbooks and textbooks. Unless magazines count as books.

soolin

quinechinoise wrote: »

This is true for me; nearly all the books I buy these days are on my Kindle. The only "real" printed books I buy nowadays are cookbooks and textbooks. Unless magazines count as books.

I ran quite a successful business selling books on Amazon, virtually all text books and non fiction. Then in Autumn 2010 my market collapsed overnight and I branched out to other things. I am now down to a core of less than 500 books for sale and sell virtually nothing.

Oh, and yes, I gave up and bought my own kindle for Christmas 2010 and now the whole family have them.

picket_fence

Over the years I've sold several old textbooks on Amazon, as I hate books lying unused, but there was no profit in it. I'd put my uni books on for a reasonable price, only for half a dozen others to come along and undercut me. I couldn't work out how they made any profit. Nowadays, unless I have something quite sought after, I don't bother. All paperbacks and widely available items go straight to the charity shop