selling books on Amazon - tips for more profit

mike55_2

Contains_Mild_Peril wrote:

Poundland is good for small quantities of Jiffy bags. You get 8 of a suitable size for DVDs, smallish paperbacks etc. for £1, or 4 bigger ones (about A4 I think).

that's cheap contains mild peril. i'm not sure if i'm near a poundland so i'll check on google. i bought some from ebay so the p and p pushed the price up. i've bought from viking since then, but they sound ok.

unless they're like the ones that look like they might slice the posties fingers off? i got some of those cheap. but they looked a bit rough

mike55_2

larmy16 wrote:

It is hard work this Amazon lark! I have never been in the situation you have with a buyer waiting, I am sure AT will come along to advise. We do not have a good Poundland where I live. I visited yesterday and they had tiny ones suitable for cd size but they were 33p each so not that cheap.

I wish I had the time to check the listings daily, and had one sale this week I should have kept a closer eye on. A book on Tarot which for some reason I had listed at £1.75 when the next one up was £5.93! I just about was even after paying postage. Oh well.

I will continue my search for jiffy bags. I do like to wrap mine as parcels anyway, but when you have quite a few to post and are in a hurry it is nice to be able to use j bags occasionally.

Also the Post Offices around here have long queues at the moment, nightmare when you are doing Amazon in your lunch hour!!! :rudolf:

thanks larmy. i can't check everyday, but i might take the time to. when that highest, and usually unrealistically priced book that's listed just after one of mine goes, i'm upping the price

i thought i'd found a seller with a book about dreams so i bought one new but reduced. i'd better read it or give it as a present cos they're going for half what i paid. win some lose some time

and post office? my missus must have got stuck behind an ebayer it took her about 20 minutes to get served!

i'm just trying to imagine her face

mike55_2

purplepatch wrote:

Hi Mike.

I raised this question a while back as I've got a CD in the same situation.

The buyer waiting specifies a maximum price they want to pay and when the price of your book comes down below that, Amazon will email them to say the item that they wanted is available.

Apparently it is also common for these so-called "buyers waiting" to have found the item elsewhere, but forgotten to cancel the alert, so even if you drop the price there's obviously no guarantee that they will bite.

Oh and I think it was also mentioned to beware lowering prices for buyers waiting, as some rival marketplace sellers put in requests for sought after items with a silly max price, snap it up and then resell for profit!

hi purplepatch and thanks for the response. i've decided to see who loses their bottle first, me or the 'buyer waiting'. i think i can hang on cos it's a fair price i'm asking

i'm not falling for amazon's 'suggested price' either. the last book was snapped up so it was obviously as you said - someone wanting it for resale. well i'm going to research some of these books beforehand in future

mike55_2

larmy16 wrote:

I have just had a 4 out of 5 rating and I am slightly gutted! What really annoys me is the feedback said "Thanks a lot". The book was an old copy of a 1985 crime (gruesome) book which had some of the picture pages come away, but I stated this clearly on the listing. Also it was priced £3.73 cheaper than the only other copy on there!! Grrrr :mad: My next one was 5 out of 5 and lovely though. People are so annoying sometimes.

Perhaps she expected it cellophane wrapped with an erormous satin bow, greetings card and a complimentary box of chocolates (note sarcasm).! :rolleyes: Can anyone tell me if this has affected their selling or are people savvy enough to realise you just cannot please some people!

thats unfortunate larmy

as leave a 4 out of 5, i'd rather have no rating, but i don't ask or expect ratings anyway. it's still a bummer though. but after reading some of the ebay boards and reasons for leaving a negative or neutral, not much surprises me. you did your best and at least you know that

did you leave a rating for the buyer? i've done so but i never know where it appears?

i think i'll do one long post next time. i'll have problems with my other wrist at this rate

mike55_2

Kaminari wrote:

I would refund the item. But that is just me.

same here Kaminari. i've done the 1 click by mistake but only when i've bought from amazon and wanted the books.

that means it wasn't a mistake, but hope you get the meaning? i hate that 1 click option now

mike55_2

i sorted out the problem about single cd cases, as in for a 1, 2, or 3 track cd etc so thanks again for all who replied.

but how do you put a good cd into a new case to replace a shabby one?

i tried earlier but ended up with the original in bits. well, i did give it some welly so to speak , but i know when people sell copies, which i don't, they must get the cd into the new case somehow?

is there an easy way to open a cd case without the wife needing a new manicure :rolleyes: or being a dentist/midwife?

i'm surrounded by bits of cd cases

mike55_2

as in a standard cd 12/14/16 track by the way.

the double cd's are easy, like the single track ones, but standard?

larmy16

mike55 wrote:

thats unfortunate larmy

as leave a 4 out of 5, i'd rather have no rating, but i don't ask or expect ratings anyway. it's still a bummer though. but after reading some of the ebay boards and reasons for leaving a negative or neutral, not much surprises me. you did your best and at least you know that

did you leave a rating for the buyer? i've done so but i never know where it appears?

i think i'll do one long post next time. i'll have problems with my other wrist at this rate

Mike I don't know if you know that it appears to be Amazon who send an email asking the buyer to rate the seller for feedback - I have never asked for it. Infact as a buyer myself, I have received these emails and have left 5 out of 5. However if I was buying an old 1985 book and got it in two days, I don't think I would find something wrong???? Maybe peoples' perception of what is "good" condition is very varied. Well there's nowt so queer as folk they say :xmassmile

Mike I find that when I want to leave feedback for my buyers, Amazon tell me that it appears I have had no part in the transaction and if I want to leave feedback I need to log in, locate the item etc. It all seems such a faddle and what can you say but thank you. I have already said that when I acknowledge the sale and tell them when I am posting.

Oh well, the upside is I sold two things today so that is good - it all went a bit quiet on thursday/friday.

mike55_2

larmy16 wrote:

Mike I don't know if you know that it appears to be Amazon who send an email asking the buyer to rate the seller for feedback - I have never asked for it. Infact as a buyer myself, I have received these emails and have left 5 out of 5. However if I was buying an old 1985 book and got it in two days, I don't think I would find something wrong???? Maybe peoples' perception of what is "good" condition is very varied. Well there's nowt so queer as folk they say :xmassmile

Mike I find that when I want to leave feedback for my buyers, Amazon tell me that it appears I have had no part in the transaction and if I want to leave feedback I need to log in, locate the item etc. It all seems such a faddle and what can you say but thank you. I have already said that when I acknowledge the sale and tell them when I am posting.

Oh well, the upside is I sold two things today so that is good - it all went a bit quiet on thursday/friday.

i didn't know that larmy. i'm not sure amazon have asked me to leave a rating, but i'll check the mails i've had from them after buying a couple of items from other sellers.

what i do know though is that the sellers mailed me anyway asking for feedback, but it took me straight back to what i'd bought from amazon itself, not the sellers accounts. all i could do with them was thank them personally by email. but i understand what you mean about leaving feedback for buyers - i get lost half the time. so i mail as well, especially with aol users as their mail filters are weird.

but look on the bright side larmy, you're still selling today i think after the last time i mentioned i'd sold something i sold 2 or 3 more books. i got one about 3 in the morning and i was still awake, and stranger still, she lived near me. i put some stamps in with the book cos it seemed the right thing to do, but she received it about 6 hours after buying it!

so don't let it get you down.

i wouldn't mind doing this as a full-time job when i retire. buy and sell books.

who keeps moving the icons?

Cath_S

Just would like to thank all who have contributed to this thread especially AT who started it all. It has taken me the best part of a fortnight, give or take an hour each night, to read it in it's entirity. It's really given me the kick up the backside that I needed to get all my unwanted books cd's and dvd's up for sale on Amazon. So far I think I've done really well selling 25 items making about £100 after all my P&P costs. I've found that my hubby's military books flew out and cd's aren't on there long. I've been recycling jiffy bags from my Ebay days and have now moved onto bubble wrap and envelopes rather than buying new jiffy's.

I'm off on maternity leave at the moment and when my current "stock" has been sold I aim to enter the charity shops to see what weird & wonderful "stock" I can find. I'm gonna try and see if I can really make this work and whether it would be worth me going back to work at all or just part time like I intend to. I think I know I'll be going back part time but I'm gonna give it my best shot. I have 6 months left off. BTW I've managed to convince the hubby that this is what the huge storage container is that's cluttering the living room is on the advice of some of your previous posts

I'm wondering whether to go pro-merchant now. I really never expected to sell this much so soon and feel I have been stung a bit by the fees that Amazon charge. I just feel that stuff I've had on sale for a couple of weeks may not shift at the same rate. I have about 60 items up for sale at the moment. What would you guys do? How long did you leave it before going pro-merchant? I know it's about 17 books per month to justify the charges but how much stock does one have to have a healthy turnover? I'd be really grateful for some feedback in how others treat the income as pin money or a source of needed income.

Thanks for a fab thread :beer: :beer: :beer: