Selling Your Stuff on Amazon Part 11 - Advice for newbies in first two posts

mnt99york

I have a question about price matching on Amazon Marketplace.

I listed a CD for sale at the weekend, and the cheapest was £7.99 - so I listed mine at 5.99. Within a few hours, the 7.99 one had changed to 5.98. I understand this process is automatic?

So whats to stop me finding something I want, listing a copy for sale far cheaper than any others, and waiting for the price matching software to kick in, then snapping up the newly cheap item from another seller?

soolin

rare_stuff wrote: »

Just wondering how you guys are doing with amazon sales as this thread has been very quiet the last few days! Are you all on holiday somewhere?

My sales completely died last week so it is difficult to maintain any enthusiasm when my sales drop off completely. The only sales I've made have been on ebay and greenmet.

My work means it is difficult for me to post out anyway so I am going to have to turn off my settings for a week which is a pain as sales are now so poor. I'm actually going to struggle to get to my 30 books needed to cover the pro seller fees, which is a shame especially as I have over 1200 books listed.

boston_uk

deathly quiet here too - last month struggled though did have about a week off with moving. Having sad that not listing very much either only the odd one or two so expected a drop off but hoped it wouldn't be this soon!!

rare_stuff

mnt99york wrote: »

I have a question about price matching on Amazon Marketplace.

I listed a CD for sale at the weekend, and the cheapest was £7.99 - so I listed mine at 5.99. Within a few hours, the 7.99 one had changed to 5.98. I understand this process is automatic?

Yup! Totally automated process, the majority of the medium to big sellers use software that will adjust prices automatically. Depending on the software and settings used prices can be adjusted automatically within an hour. Most sellers only set there software to price match, rather than undercut. There is a list somewhere online of those sellers that do set there software to undercut, not sure how up to date it is, and it may only concentrate on booksellers.
This means that setting your prices lower (significantly lower in the example given) is a complete waste of time as it only brings the other sellers down to your price and will rarely mean you sell quicker.

mnt99york wrote: »

So whats to stop me finding something I want, listing a copy for sale far cheaper than any others, and waiting for the price matching software to kick in, then snapping up the newly cheap item from another seller?

Absolutely nothing! Though be aware that you are just as likely to sell your 'fictitious' copy before their software matches, this could result in neg feedback when you fail to supply it. Too many neg feedbacks and you risk having your account closed. You also risk the seller realising you have done this and refusing to supply and refunding you. They can usually afford to take a neg feedback in such cases and are often prepared to do so. Some sellers only match or undercut if the condition of the book is listed as same or better. Also, if the jump between prices is large some sellers software will ignore the new price altogether or only gradually reduce their price to match.

wilf55

totally dead buried and forgotten here

wendym

A brief blip here (2 books at the beginning of this week) but otherwise dead for about 3 weeks. Apart from the fairly expensive book that we now think DH had taken to the charity shop, but left on the Amazon listing. We even visited the charity shop to try to buy it back, but it had gone. Fortunately the buyer could not have been nicer.

soolin

wendym, I've just logged in to post my disaster and I read your post!

I'm in the same situation...I've just sold a book (thank you selling fairy, you obviously read this list!) and I can't find it. It is the most expensive book I had listed, £99 and in the back of my mind I can half remember putting it somewhere safe..but I had window fitters here all last week and half my current books got moved around and I took a car load to the dump.

I am actually hyper ventilating so I had to stop looking for the book and have a cup of tea. I can barely type as I am shaking so much

wendym

Oh dear soolin - when I said 'fairly expensive' I didn't mean anything like £99!

We're not even sure that our book went to the charity shop, so I know just what it feels like not to know what you did with it. Have another cup of tea.

I'm going to start a computer document called 'safe places'. It's nothing like as important, but I have no idea where I stashed my son-in-law's birthday presents. 'Somewhere safe' is the best my brain has come up with.

Never mind the selling fairy, where's the missing book fairy?

mishkanorman

Ive had really poo sales on both accounts since xmas and cancelled my pro-seller last month as i wasnt getting anywhere near the sales i needed and some months had to pay amazon

then suddenly this week im up to 7 sales :j on one account and 0 :rolleyes: on the other


random random randomidge,


soolin,


Have you checked the shelf with the red book at the end ? its half way along tucked behind another book (to keep it safe)


if not then i havent a clue


Nice (in a sadistic way;) ) to know im not the only one that looses books :eek:

soolin

I found it!!

I sat and had a bit of a calm down and remembered that I had slotted in books to empty boxes on an ad hoc basis as I removed some that weren't selling, and I was constantly being interrupted so it was more than possible I hadn't update dmy spreadsheet with its whereabouts. So all I had to do was work through the boxes in the order I remember opening them..and lo, there it was nestled under a whole load of Martina Cole books that are unlikely ever to sell.

I have wrapped it and it's already gone special delivery so it should all be well. It was a rather tatty 1963 paperback book though and I just hope the buyer read all the description..I was brutally honest about the colour of the pages, but you still never can tell.