Book selling on Amazon

louby40

Hi


Can anyone give me some advice in pro's and cons of doing this.


I have a lot of novels/play/poetry from when I did my English degree 20 years ago. Shakespeare, Donne, Duchess of Malfi and other more modern titles Death of a Salesman, John Updike Rabbit is Rich etc


Some of them have notes written in them but they are just sitting on a shelf doing nothing.


I'm finishing work in 3 weeks (teacher) so have some time off to put them on Amazon and post them off (if they actually sell).


Is it worth it? Or is it a hassle?


Thanks in advance
:T

soolin

louby40 wrote: »

Hi


Can anyone give me some advice in pro's and cons of doing this.


I have a lot of novels/play/poetry from when I did my English degree 20 years ago. Shakespeare, Donne, Duchess of Malfi and other more modern titles Death of a Salesman, John Updike Rabbit is Rich etc


Some of them have notes written in them but they are just sitting on a shelf doing nothing.


I'm finishing work in 3 weeks (teacher) so have some time off to put them on Amazon and post them off (if they actually sell).


Is it worth it? Or is it a hassle?


Thanks in advance
:T

Check your exact editions for current prices but remember that anything with notes can only be sold as acceptable , and you must mention the condition. I used to sell books on Amazon as a business, but the market really died as the big companies can afford to sell books at a 1p and still make money on postage. Amazon fees are high so a penny sale with postage will not cover a standard second class packet. You can see exactly,how much you will receive after fees though before you list.

Amazon will also almost certainly require information from you to set up a selling account, they don't differentiate between business and private so you will need proper ID.

louby40

Thank you. I began the process at the weekend and didn't get round to rooting my passport out.

So it's probably not really worth the hassle then?

soolin

louby40 wrote: »

Thank you. I began the process at the weekend and didn't get round to rooting my passport out.

So it's probably not really worth the hassle then?

IT wouldn't hurt to just check the isbn numbers against the Amazon data base in case you have anything rare. You need it to show as a few pounds though just to cover your postage costs. The only other thing to check is the ranking, if it is too big, say over 500,000 in 'fiction' then it means it rarely sells.

Classics though tend to be cheap, as modern editions like penguin editions can be bought so cheaply and easily that they rarely hold their price.

lincroft1710

A lot of these sort of titles can be found in charity shops. I would have thought that the market for such titles is limited and they have also been defaced.

louby40

Yes I've got a lot of penguin classics. Very much doubt there's anything rare.

I'll put the ISBN in over the holidays and see what comes up.

Thanks

[Deleted User]

louby40, I wish you success if you decide to sell on Amazon. I do it and have been reasonably successful. Although seller fees are high I much prefer it to eBay as a selling platform for books.

Sales can be very seasonal, as summer approaches there seem to be fewer people buying books of any sort in my recent experience:(. Topics/genres that sell well can depend hugely on major events like some WW1 literature, authors' deaths etc. This week I sold 2 quite expensive books on European Law which had been hanging fire for months. Probably not exactly a coincidence given the Referendum result.

I've found that a bonus is selling books that were published in USA like a lot of business books are as I've found that even on Amazon UK that most of the sellers are from USA. A lot of buyers don't want to wait so long to receive a book mailed from USA and are often happy to choose mine at a more expensive price because I dispatch it on next/same day from UK.

Anything reasonably rare or with only a few copies available is your best bet, although not too rare as to have nobody likely to be interested in it;). I don't think the ranking matters in that case.

In my experience I've found business books do very well, some self-help titles and books on more unusual hobbies. Large coffee table books are a no-no as are most Readers' Digest titles.

It could be a good time to sell undergraduate books if students already have their reading lists for the next academic year but as with everything it's always just a case of try it and see. There's no definitive guide on what sells best and when:(

Be prepared for the listed books to still be sitting on your shelf for months. I've eventually sold books that have been listed for up to 2 years. It's best to check prices and maybe refresh your asking price in cases where nothing happens for a while. It's not uncommon for some other sellers to undercut your asking price even if you started as the cheapest:(. At least with Amazon once books are listed they stay listed forever so that's one less thing to worry about:)

Please let us know how you get on. Good Luck:beer:

Brand

Just a warning to small sellers that I put up a book for sale on Amazon in June 2016 and today 29 July (last business day of July) I have just been charged £30 from my credit card. It is not clear, but from reading the help it looks like this is a monthly subscription for having an item on sale on Amazon. The guides I read never warned of this.
It looks like I was registered as a "pro-seller". I seem to be able to convert this to "individual seller" which does not have a fee. I am sure the option of the two types of seller was not clear at time of setting up, so the default must be to set up as pro-seller, not individual.
I don't know how I go about complaining, as there is no contact facility on Amazon.
It takes 17 days to convert an account or to close an account, so I suppose I will be charged again also, making a loss of £60 to Amazon.

soolin

Brand wrote: »

Just a warning to small sellers that I put up a book for sale on Amazon in June 2016 and today 29 July (last business day of July) I have just been charged £30 from my credit card. It is not clear, but from reading the help it looks like this is a monthly subscription for having an item on sale on Amazon. The guides I read never warned of this.
It looks like I was registered as a "pro-seller". I seem to be able to convert this to "individual seller" which does not have a fee. I am sure the option of the two types of seller was not clear at time of setting up, so the default must be to set up as pro-seller, not individual.
I don't know how I go about complaining, as there is no contact facility on Amazon.
It takes 17 days to convert an account or to close an account, so I suppose I will be charged again also, making a loss of £60 to Amazon.

The default is for a standard seller, you have to actually opt in to be a Pro seller and pay the monthly subscription. If you call Amazon (it's under contact us) they may well give you back the fee as a goodwill gesture , and don't forget to cancel it for next month. If you do get a refund then there will be a small additional fee to pay on your sale as it is dearer to sell as a standard seller, from memory it is about 81p dearer per item.