selling books on Amazon - tips for more profit

Sofa_Sogood

apprentice_tycoon wrote:

I agree, the no fee till you sell is quite compelling, I have had books listed for over a year that sell for no apparent reason other than a buyer finally found it, if they were on ebay I'd have been seriously out of pocket.
The idea that you can pick a book out of your collection or bring it home from wherever and have it up for sale in the same time as it takes to boil a kettle is pretty compelling too.

It's also highly addictive

My attempts at decluttering have included emptying the loft, the wardrobes, the cd racks, and now the Video collection :eek:

I've never seen so much clutter in one room

P.S. I got my first rating today

voodoozoe

Well if its as good as you all say then I'm all for it. What I need next is Amazon Antiques Marketplace where they pay an even bigger postage allowance!!!

Sofa_Sogood

It's like having a carboot sale .....

..... from the comfort of your own home

voodoozoe

I must admit I was impressed with how quick it was...the only thing was having to log in with username and password between EVERY item (unless thats just my rubbish computer)

Sofa_Sogood

It asks me for my password everytime but not username voodoosue but it's still quick

Bella13_2

soolin wrote:

I've been on listbooks for about three months, or at least ever since I first saw it mentioned in another forum, but have never sold anything, that's why I thought I would give Amazon a try.

I sent the two books off yesterday and emailed the buyers to say books on their way, and have had a charming email back from one of them congratulating me on my first sale, wasn't that nice.

Soo

Sorry Soo, should have realised that you probably would have tried this and that you are far more clued up than I ever will be!! I am still learning the whole selling on the internet thing and using chat forums! (and not doing very well at either!!)

Sofa_Sogood

soolin wrote:

Also, rummaging through some of the many book shelves here I've even found an old building society pass book with £2 in it from 1983, the Building society no longer exists but I think I'll try and track then down anyway and ask for my £2 back...

Soo

LOL. I found a book like that. My husband took it in, because it was still 'active', and spent about 30 minutes waiting for it to update. It was 20 years old so took a while ....

I'm not sure of the interest involved, but it took up about 4 pages

Track them if you can Soo. You've got nothing to lose and maybe something to gain

nads

Morning guys, hope your're ok. Back at work

I've listed my book in both places EXPOSURE EXPOSURE EXPOSURE!!!

It takes what 60-120 seconds to book a book on Amazon, on eBay you wouldn't have gone passed the description. This is what I love about Amazon!

This thread on the tech board has got some info on form fillers which are really useful for logins.

Yesterday was the first time I ventured into a charity shop. Unfortunately in my haste at seeing shelves and shelves of books, I hastily picked out 3 books but I forgot half the tips on this thread :rotfl:

Were they cheap? mmmm 1.50, 2.50, 3.00
Are they cheap to post and pack ? only 1 is!
Are they in good condition? yes

but hey, you learn from your mistakes and I can feel the addictive bug coming along already!

soolin

Bella13 wrote:

Sorry Soo, should have realised that you probably would have tried this and that you are far more clued up than I ever will be!! I am still learning the whole selling on the internet thing and using chat forums! (and not doing very well at either!!)

I'm not clued up with books at all. I spent an entire day listing on listbooks without doing any real research about it at the time. It was only when I searched through obscure Google chat items and stuff I found several reports that no one appears to be selling anything on there, still we live and learn.

The only think I've still not quite got my head around on Amazon is the huge price the buyer pays in relation to the low price the seller gets. For instance a paperback book that goes for 1p will cost the buyer £2.76 (standard p and p is £2.75), out of that the seller only gets £1.41 of which say 94p goes on postage, 15p on a padded envelope (I don't have any access to used envelopes so all my stuff is new) which leaves the seller with 37p profit assuming that nothing was paid for the book.

I think this difference in the paid amount and received amount is why some of the sellers seem to get quite low ratings. A buyer paying £2,76 for a paperback book will expect something good and clean and near new, whereas the seller sees it almost as a loss leader and something just to get rid off.

I have looked into the merchant account, but since I have only managed to sell 2 items it doesn't look pratical for me to pay out a monthly fee however small. Maybe in the future if I stick with Amazon and can get to know what sells and what doesn't, at the moment i'm just listing stuff I already have.

Soo

nads

Hi Soolin,

When you consider some sellers have access to loads of cheap books <50p and P&P for them is cheap, e.g. <10p for a jiffy bag (bulk buying them from places like svpdirect and vikingdirect) and if they are posting a paperback which is very light, they do start crawling back their money!


For example:
Buy a book for £0.50
P&P Cost: .68
Sell for £0.01

minus £1.35 Amazon fees = 73p pure profit, might not seem much but sell loads of books and it mounts up.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!....

If you're a Pro merchant your 73p profit becomes £1.59!!!

Now you see why people WILL put books for 1p - the Amazon postage allowance and the Pro Merchant savings and this is just for 1p books!