selling books on Amazon - tips for more profit

r.mac_2

mah_jong wrote:

yep thats what I do...I prefer word as its easy to make the packing label addy larger.

Prob in mah_jong house is the number of huge, twenty year old reference books and old large reader digest manuals etc....what to do with them???? Some of them are in mint condition. Took a pile to the charity shop already. But I would also like to make some money if there is any to be had!!! Ideas??

Have you tried taking them to local second hand book stores? they may buy them from you - or if they are rare/worth money/specialist may be able to direct you to a company or person that would be interested in them.

Firefly

Ten books listed earlier, two books sold tonight! Easy peasy and for a reasonable price too.

An ideal way for my daughter to reduce her collection of text books now she's finished uni.

Thanks OP!

nemo183

The only problem I see with with second class post is that it leaves your parcel in the hands of Royal Mail for a bit longer.

My personally experience is that this is not a good thing..........

filigree_2

Aaaargh! Can I just repeat the advice to WEIGH THE BOOK! I have just sold a hardback for £1.50 and after costs I will only just break even. I don't want to cancel the sale because I'm a new seller and don't want to risk bad feedback.

Curses. Tomorrow I'm going to review the prices of my hardbacks, if they're priced for less than £2 I might as well not bother.

Learn from my mistake folks

se999

Hi,

Pick up a leaflet from the post office, they have one that details all national and international postal rates, you can also do this via their on-line website http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?catId=400023&mediaId=9300094

I used to check things out using kitchen scales to estimate prices for Ebay and also to check if worth selling on Amazon. Can check if your scales are accurate by weighing a packet/can you've bought with the weight printed on the side.

I also collect all packaging when we receive parcels & re-use. You can get address labels for re-using envelopes etc. from Friends of the Earth http://www.foe.co.uk/ (& some other charities, Traidcraft used to do them too), and use them using parcel tape to reseal. I always made sure the parcels still looked professional and got good feedback about packaging

For light weight very thin books, I used normal manilla envelopes (A4 & A5 sizes, cheap packs from Wilkinsons) and put a piece of cardboard (cut to size) in to prevent them being bent and wrote in large letters "Please Do not Bend" on the front left hand corner, I did use parcel tape over the ends to ensure the book moving didn't open the envelope. (Parcel tape was cheap from Wilkinsons). Also used bits of Cardboard to protect corners of hardback books (jiffy bags aren't too good on protecting corners), to make sure they didn't get damaged.

Hope these help, they worked for me

P.S. Forgot to say 2 bits about weighing!! Firstly add on weight of packaging , secondly kitchen scales do only give an 'estimate', if it's borderline between two charges assume the worst

cymro1170

Another tip on packaging.
If you have a paper shredder use some of the shreds around the book to stop it moving about in the envelope.

Austin_Allegro

I think the Amazon rule is you only have to send the books second class.

Second hand bookshops do often buy textbooks and course books, especially those shops near universities. When I was at uni the standard rate was 40% of the book's cover price. If it was a really old book bought for 2/- or something, they usually made you an offer based on today's prices. So here's a hint. If you try to sell a book you bought for 10p that cost £15 new, for heaven's sake rub out the pencilled in '10p' in the flyleaf, or they might try to buy it from you for 4p.

You can also 'tart up' books with a set of felt pens. Books with cracked spines can be touched up to look in better condition which can justify a higher price. Don't do this on any real old valuable books.

There's also a forum for sellers on Amazon - makes quite compulsive reading.

payless

Amazon own guidance pages http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/3149141/ref=w_h__brbx_c_2_0/026-2434180-6326834

there's even a discussion forum

I have always sent my books First class, can't see this as a requirement anywhere, but they do mention estimated delivery for first class..

apprentice_tycoon

payless wrote:

Amazon own guidance pages http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/3149141/ref=w_h__brbx_c_2_0/026-2434180-6326834

there's even a discussion forum

I have always sent my books First class, can't see this as a requirement anywhere, but they do mention estimated delivery for first class..

That's interesting, they used to have a first class post requirement, or at least they did when I joined up 3 years ago but at that time they were giving you a postage allowance of over £3.00

pammie

Just wanted to say thank you, I read this post yesterday, put 3 books on last night and sold two straight away. Posted them off 1st thing this morning and after fees and postage (I went mad and sent them 1st class recorded) I still made £3.20. Bearing in mind I got 20p each for the ones I took to my local car boot sale i'm really pleased.