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

Mrs_Money

Hi all
I don't want to add to all the "credit crunch" doom and gloom - but my Amazon sales have really taken a tumble - I've been selling 11 or 12 books a month for over 2 years now -not huge I know - but I'm doing it part time and usually they are current academic A level or uni books that Amazon are still selling. I can only find these in charity shops so I struggle to get stock- but the profit is usually well worthwhile. But I sold nothing in July and only 2 or 3 a month since April! I have 100% feedback and most of my listings are at the top (cheapest) - except for those listings by annoying people who undercut me by a penny! I ignore them and leave my price - not going to get into that reducing warfare!!:rolleyes: That way we all get less!
Is anyone else suffering low sales? I've read somewhere that Amazon says their sales are "bouyant" - can this really be true? What do you all think?

wendym

As 'buoyant' as a stone here.

soolin

I had disastrous sales for May and June, in June I didn't even sell the 30 books I needed to 'cover' my pro fee. However for July I am heading up to 50 sales and still have another week before my chargeable period ends. For me it is almost as though my sales are switched 'on' or 'off' I go from nothing to several a week..there is no pattern at all to them.

I shall make hay while the sun shines, no doubt someone will switch me 'off' soon and I'll be struggling again.

numberthree

Just a heads up from the Amazon discussion boards

Folks are saying there is a press release that Amazon.com is aquiring ABE books

soolin

numberthree wrote: »

Just a heads up from the Amazon discussion boards

Folks are saying there is a press release that Amazon.com is aquiring ABE books

Goodness :eek:

princessmoneysaver

snax wrote: »

I 'secretly' mark all CD/DVD/Game disc's specifically to avoid this type of scam [particularly with higher value/rare items] and then photograph the 'marks' as proof .... I'm actually waiting for someone to try this so I can reply back with ...''Err you appeared to have returned the wrong item, unfortunately I cannot process your refund until the correct item has been safely returned to me" ... having said that I have never had a complaint about a scratched/damaged disc [yet].

Is there a possibilty the buyer is confusing you with another seller [of a similar item they have puchased] and left you feedback intended for the other seller by mistake?

Also would it be possible for the disc to come off the disc holder clip it 'clicks' on to and then rattle about in the case, being scratched in transit?

hope it helps.

Update, Amazon have got back to me saying they can't remove the feedback I emailed the buyer yesterday, I put the 'read receipt' on it which came back almost instantly but no actual reply from them so I guess for now I just have to wait to see what happens next. Thanks for all the help so far x

geranium72

geranium72 wrote: »

I am a relatively new amazon Seller and recently sold 2 books. I didn't get feedback or any reply to my emails saying I had dispatched but wasn't concerned about that since reading these boards.

One book was an expensive text book - sold for £30 ish - so I sent that first class signed for on the day of payment. I checked Royal Mail and all it would say was a card had been left as delivery had been unsuccessfully attempted (ie no one in)

I have heard nothing from the buyer at all and today, went to pick up a parcel at PO to find it is my book returned to me, so obviously they didn't collect it.

This is 2 weeks after posting it and since I said immediate dispatch I am really surprised the Buyer hasn't contacted me.

I don't see why I should pay another £4 to send it again .

does anyone have advice? can I legitimately email the Buyer and say I will resend but they will have to pay for that - or is it my problem? Should I just wait for them to contact me? I don't want to rip someone off but it is really starange they haven't been in touch or collected the book given it is such an expensive purchase.

Any help appreciated as I can't find any answers on Amazon!

Little update

Thanks for all the help

The Buyer responded to me email and apologised for being out of the country and then voluntarily offered tp apy the extra postage. She paypalled me an extra £4 and gave an alternative address so hopefully all ends well as I have now resent!

mutley_muppet

I've never sold on Amazon before and am trying to list a book on herbal medicine.

There are already a few for sell on Amazon, but not any with the same year of pubication as mine (1992) there is a listing which comes up when I enter the ISBN but the book is a later edition.

So do I just list mine in with these later 1996 editions or should I be starting a whole new listing??
The book is A modern herbal by Mrs M Grieve (hardback, 1992)

Hope that makes sense & thank you!
MM x

p.s. I also have another old book, that doesnt list the year of publication but the author refers to the "70's" as the curent year in her text and also refers to the book as her 4th edition. How do I list this book if I dont know the year of publication? Thank you.

teapot2

mutley_muppet wrote: »

I've never sold on Amazon before and am trying to list a book on herbal medicine.

There are already a few for sell on Amazon, but not any with the same year of pubication as mine (1992) there is a listing which comes up when I enter the ISBN but the book is a later edition.

So do I just list mine in with these later 1996 editions or should I be starting a whole new listing??
The book is A modern herbal by Mrs M Grieve (hardback, 1992)

Hope that makes sense & thank you!
MM x

p.s. I also have another old book, that doesnt list the year of publication but the author refers to the "70's" as the curent year in her text and also refers to the book as her 4th edition. How do I list this book if I dont know the year of publication? Thank you.

Hi MM

welcome to Amazon and the thread

Re your herbal medicine book - I had a search by title/author and there are quite a few editions listed but not the one you mention. The problem is if you list it even mentioning in the listing details that its an earlier edition you could run into problems as its different from the original listing Are you a pro merchant seller? If you are, just carefully create another listing for your edition.

With your other book - does it have an ISBN number and is it already listed as a 4th edition, if so should be ok to list. If not, try doing a search on books by title/author and see if its listed already. If you have to create a listing I think theres a default year for unknown publication dates but they are sometimes in unlikely places ie at the back of the book. You can also check on abebooks and bookfinder.com to see if anyone is selling it on another site and has the year listed.

Teapot

mutley_muppet

teapot2 wrote: »

Hi MM

welcome to Amazon and the thread

Re your herbal medicine book - I had a search by title/author and there are quite a few editions listed but not the one you mention. The problem is if you list it even mentioning in the listing details that its an earlier edition you could run into problems as its different from the original listing Are you a pro merchant seller? If you are, just carefully create another listing for your edition.

With your other book - does it have an ISBN number and is it already listed as a 4th edition, if so should be ok to list. If not, try doing a search on books by title/author and see if its listed already. If you have to create a listing I think theres a default year for unknown publication dates but they are sometimes in unlikely places ie at the back of the book. You can also check on abebooks and bookfinder.com to see if anyone is selling it on another site and has the year listed.

Teapot

Thank you for your detailed reply Teapot. Much appreciated.:beer:

I'm not a pro-seller. Are pro-sellers the only ones who can create a new listing then?
So I guess with the herbal medicine my only choice is to list it and put that it is the 1992 edition in the description?

My other book (The complete herbal book for the dog by Juliette De Bairacli-Levy) doesnt have an ISBN. The dust jacket is missing so maybe it was on that?

I cant see the 4th edition specifically listed, and I cant see any numbers in the back of the book, but I will have a nosey of the websites that you mentioned.
Thanks,
MM x