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

soolin

Just to be warned that buyers are being given some very odd info by Amazon. I am still getting orders in and have actually (for about the first time ever) been in proper conversation with some buyers. The despatch info being given today says that their item will definitely be despatched up to and including the 25th December, and one person emailed to ask if thtat meant Amazon would be making Christmas Day deliveries and f so how did that work.

Arghh, to make it worse that means all orders tomorrow , even those after the PO has closed after lunch will be given a guaranteed despatch date of the 26th December at the latest..which is impossible as POs will not be open again until Saturday 27th. That means we should all take care to check our emails until the very last minute before the PO closes just in case we get a sale.

It is going to take just one stroppy buyer here...

At least on Ebay I could personally add a note to all my auctions stating my posting regime over the holiday period.

JCS1

Just had the same thing, item sold morning of 24th (whilst I was at work), latest dispatch date the 26th! Have emailed Amazon CS, but too late to do anything. Will contact the seller now so they are aware.

Response from Amazon, would be good if their website said the same thing though!

Thank you for contacting us at Amazon.co.uk Marketplace.

Marketplace seller are given two business days to dispatch order that are placed with them.

As a consequence, an order placed with a Marketplace seller on the 24th of December does not have to be shipped before the 30th of December.

soolin

As you say I just hope buyers are being told that, mine yesterday certainly weren't and the ones sold today show that I need to despatch by the 26th. I've emailed the buyers to say that I will be posting on the 27th as soon as the post office reopens after Christmas.

Campden

In the hope of improving on eBay sales I have been researching sellers' experiences on Amazon.

In another forum, R-points, I saw a post suggesting that £1 was an average profit for a book sold on Amazon and that 50% of books would sell.
Is that the experience of sellers here? or too pessimistic? or optimistic....?

soolin

Campden wrote: »

In the hope of improving on eBay sales I have been researching sellers' experiences on Amazon.

In another forum, R-points, I saw a post suggesting that £1 was an average profit for a book sold on Amazon and that 50% of books would sell.
Is that the experience of sellers here? or too pessimistic? or optimistic....?

I don't think there is any measureable average, I sold a book this week that I bought for 20p for £49+ yet I have also sold a lot at 1p that nets me around £1 profit (or less), I would think if I actually did a proper mathematical average mine would be higher than £1. However that is because I have a policy of selling/storing very few 1p books, I tend to concentrate on more expensive books with a good sales rating and I discard possibly as many as half the books that I get.

I also don't sell 50% across the board. Some books may take more than a year to find a buyer, others go within minutes of being listed, it's all to do with the ranking. I probably have around 700 books listed that have bene listed for nearly 2 years with no sale and which I will probably cull in due course.

funkyfunkymonkey

Hi Campden, I would say that it is neither optimistic or pessimistic. It would depend entirely on your pricing strategy and your stock.

I have a stock of over 4200 books, but only sold 47 in the last 30 days. I took about £400 and probably paid about £100-£150 in P&P.

One of these books was first listed in November 2004!!! 19 of the books were listed in 2005. Only 12 were listed in 2008.

I'm sure that doesn't help at all, except to confirm what Soolin is saying, that it is variable.

FFM

soolin

Just for comparison I have about 1400 books currently listed, as per my earlier post at least 700 of them are at least a year old on the listings and could be as much as 2 years +, the rest are rotating, I buy some, delete some discard some and in the past 30 days of my listings being open have sold about 55.

funkyfunkymonkey

I wish I was as dedicated as you Soolin, but I just don't seem to find the time to go through my shed and listings these days. I haven't added to my stock for so long now, except for puzzles given to me by MIL to sell.

I still enjoy the Amazon selling but it's just hard to fit it in with work.

I'm currently psyching myself up to do the annual tax return - why do I leave it so late? Thank goodness you can submit on-line these days.

FFM

soolin

My only incentive is lack of room. If I could be bothered to actually clear my outbuilding properly I could get twice as many books in there, but you know how it is..I keep putting it off for another day!

So if I buy a lot of good ones I have to discard some older ones just to make them all fit.

I am having my best weeks ever though, stuff is flying, but I am listing several times a week and turning over mainly new stuff but with the odd golden oldie like my £49 book this week.

I hate to rub it in but I've already done my tax return..last year I left it so late I was panicking as I couldn't get the online thing to work..this year I did it back in August and the web site was about 10 times quicker.

funkyfunkymonkey

I always plan to do my tax return early and will have it up to date except for the last 2 months with the plan to finish it in April and send it in early - but I never ever do.

Well done you for getting on top of it - maybe next year....

FFM