selling books on Amazon - tips for more profit

ampersand

Lara wrote:

Thanks for your help. I think I'll put it at a slightly higher price and be ready to post to USA instead of just UK.............................time to test Amazon I suppose!

I too want to thank everyone for this silken thread(and all on MMST) .......
Passionately forced the site details upon two others during only my second voluntary day at nearby charity yesterday & have said I expect Homework reports indicating Subscription and Tesco success on Monday-sorry, I digress.
.......and especially to the person who helped me trace it.
Perhaps I can help Lara:
-I had assumed that any book-maniacs, or those wishing to be less so, would know about ABEBOOKS.com. Dealers and booksellers list their books here and allow you to see-worldwide-what values are set and why. Quickly, one discerns helpful phrasing, acquires knowledge-all will help you to understand what is desirable, permissible,sought after, etc. Familiarise yourself with the correct Trade meanings of the Terms Mint, Fine, Very Good, Good, Poor/Reading Copy only.
Buying just one copy of BMC - Book and Magazine Collector(monthly A5 issue, available in most newsagents, or orderable) -will also repay dividends in getting you started and allowing you to read others Sales and Wants.
I ALWAYS consult Abebooks before listing anything on e-bay, but Amazon will be new for me.
Thankyou all, again.

ampersand

Austin_Allegro wrote:

There's often no logic to the prices on Amazon (or ABE books, the other main site). If the book cost you £4.95, I can see no reason why they should be selling it for £45 unless it is 'collectable' - ie is a signed copy or something.

It might be that the book is out of print and in high demand.

If it is the latter, you should start by undercutting the other sellers by about 5 or 10 per cent, then if you get no takers after a few weeks, you could gradually drop the price.

However, a lot of the time I think booksellers just think of a random high price and hope for the best .EG a Dr Who book I had was advertised on ABE books for £95, but nobody was buying it. I advertised it at about £60 - no takers - then about £40 - no takers - then dropped to £18 when it finally sold.

Sorry Austin Allegro - have just found your post in which you speak of ABEBOOKS - yes, I agree. And I always firmly tell self that(as with anything) if it's still there, thus UNSOLD, it's priced too high. The value of anything is ONLY what buyer and seller deem mutually acceptable and that ONLY for the nano-second history of that transaction.

sans_2

Thanks for this thread, I listed my first book today.

apprentice_tycoon

I had a bit of a re-think on Sunday and decided that since I have over 150 books listed that I'd have a go at the Pro-merchant status thingy.

This means that the 86 pence basic selling fee is waived but I have a monthly subscription to pay, now I have to sell over 30 books per month to come out on top. It would seem that I can cancel this at any time (it's charged monthly so you would have to cancel just before the next months subscription starts) so I thought that I'd give it a go, even if it's just for a short while.

Anyone else gone down this route?

edited - at the moment they are doing half price subscription (it's normally £28.75) for your first 3 months. They weren't running this when I signed up on Sunday :mad:

bj-sailaway

Do I pay a higher fee for listing that I would be prepared to post to Europe. I presumed the fee related to the location of the actual buyer? Can anyone clarify? Thanks, By the way, sold my first book today, but with the charges only came out with about £3 for a book that retails at about £25 in the shops, still, cost me nothing so I'm still on the up and no point being more expensive than the others on offer.

carol_a_3

No the fees are the same wherever you send the book, a fee plus a percentage. You get a higher postal allowance if you do sell it abroad.

competitionscafe

This (buy 1 get 1 free offer on bulk purchase of postal jiffy bags) might interest those who have a lot of books to sell and post out?
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=891722#post891722

cymro1170

I have sold a book that i got for 99p to someone in Japan!!
Made quite a profit on it too £££

Anyway, When you list a book and there are "34 new, 25 used", is it better thatthe numbers are high or low?
Can't quite suss it out......

Patr100

cymro1170 wrote:

Anyway, When you list a book and there are "34 new, 25 used", is it better thatthe numbers are high or low?
Can't quite suss it out......

That means there are 34 with the same title already listed , and described by sellers as new, 25 secondhand . As a seller , it's better when the numbers are low as there is less choice for the buyer and fewer competitors for you as a seller.

cymro1170

Has anyone found a supplier of really cheap books?