selling books on Amazon - tips for more profit

apprentice_tycoon

I had one of these yesterday, it's tough luck.

If you go into your 'seller account' page, then 'billing history' you can get to the page where the trasaction details are, there is a refund button there. Make sure that you print it out to get the missing post form filled in

purplepatch

I had my best amazon sale last night at £35.

Just reading the last couple of posts has got me wondering whether I should send it recorded.

I usually do 2nd class standard with COP, what does this cover me for?

masonic

purplepatch wrote:

I usually do 2nd class standard with COP, what does this cover me for?

A COP covers you for up to £30 (postage is not included in any refund). Recorded does not cover you for any more, so you would have to use special delivery to fully cover items over £30 (postage is included in special delivery claims).

captain_insano

The book I sold went for £1.40 though postage was £2.40. So am I right in thinking that I can only claim for £1.40 back?

masonic

captain_insano wrote:

The book I sold went for £1.40 though postage was £2.40. So am I right in thinking that I can only claim for £1.40 back?

That's right, although you can try for a full refund as not all postal workers are necessarily aware of that policy. It's a bit of a problem on Amazon I guess; at least with ebay you can set your own postage and absorb some of the cost into the item price if you wanted to.

apprentice_tycoon

The transaction details that you print out gives the figure that is refunded from the seller, that will include the postage allowance that they give you so you may get just a bit more than your £1.40

purplepatch

masonic wrote:

A COP covers you for up to £30 (postage is not included in any refund). Recorded does not cover you for any more, so you would have to use special delivery to fully cover items over £30 (postage is included in special delivery claims).

If you have to make a claim, which figure do you give as the value of the item then? Original selling price, total due seller, there seem to be a few different things you could put down. After the fees, my £35 item works out at £30.35 due seller. If this is the figure they take then I won't bother with any further insurance.

Bella13_2

Angela wrote:

MY local charity shop sells paperbacks for 20p and hardbacks for 50p cant get much cheaper than that.

I do have another charity shop I visit and they are pretty reasonable as well.

(Hope I have done the quote correctly - still learning how to do all this!)

Cheapest price in my local charity shops seems to be about £1.25, and that's for paperback novels - most books are at least £2 or more, particularly self help ones. I was happy when I found one shop was having a "sale", with all paperbacks at 50p and all hardbacks at £1... although they seem to have moved all the self-help books to the store room (and there were some I wanted to buy).

However, turnover in all the shops is pretty poor, so it does mean that I can write down the ISBNs (on the notepad I take with me), and check them out on Amazon, then go back and buy them if I think it is worthwhile. Had never thought about putting it into my phone - good idea!! I am getting conscious that they remember me, because I always have pushchair and very cute baby (well, I think so) with me, and the staff always come to "coo" at him; so I don't want to be seen scribbling away every time I visit!!

I have been caught out (I think), in thinking that a book will get an excellent price, but hadn't noticed it is one of these sellers that seem to post an exceptionally high price... so I do watch out for that.

On another note, I have just had one of those payment pending emails, advising me not to send out my book just yet... (which I wasn't going to, as hadn't had an email to say it had been sold). Wondered if it was a competitor trying to get theirs sold instead, but when I looked it up, there doesn't seem to be any others for sale... oh well... if it doesn't sell, I am sure someone else will come along one day to buy it...

apprentice_tycoon

purplepatch wrote:

If you have to make a claim, which figure do you give as the value of the item then? Original selling price, total due seller, there seem to be a few different things you could put down. After the fees, my £35 item works out at £30.35 due seller. If this is the figure they take then I won't bother with any further insurance.

I haven't actually put a claim in yet (I'm filling in the form later) so I don't know what the figure is that the PO will cough up, I've copied the transaction details and it gives the book price as £4.40 but the refund to seller as £5.90, so I'll put the £5.90 in the box on the form as what I'm claiming but because they will want the details as proof they may take the book price of £4.40 as the amount of the claim.
This is unchartered water for me!

masonic

purplepatch wrote:

If you have to make a claim, which figure do you give as the value of the item then? Original selling price, total due seller, there seem to be a few different things you could put down. After the fees, my £35 item works out at £30.35 due seller. If this is the figure they take then I won't bother with any further insurance.

I think as long as you give them an official invoice of some kind, then you may as well take you pick. As apprentice tycoon says, in some cases you might get more than you really should, but what can you do.

Edit: Just to clarify, your talking about adding a minimum of £3 onto the postage costs (special delivery) for an extra £5 back if the item gets lost. It doesn't sound like a good deal to me.