Buying 2nd hand books on eBay

[Deleted User]

As a newbie to eBay I'm still amazed at how much some sellers are charging for postage on books. I have bought a couple of paperback books (not the big thick ones) on ebay recently where the postage was not more than £1 and to be sent 2nd class.

This seems very fair -although I'm happy to pay up to £1.50 for second class even though 1st class would only be between £1.15 and £1.30

One book I'm after in particular, (average sized paperback novel) was advertised recently with postage of £2.90 second class! I could not believe people were bidding on it. The cost of the postage plus the book made it dearer than buying it NEW in WH Smiths.

As I say, I'm just a ebay newbie still - but is this how to make money on ebay?

On postage?

gkf

I agree, some sellers just push their luck. What book are you after?

[Deleted User]

I was after a Clive Cussler book for my OH - Fire Ice. I've seen it on Amazon for 1p plus postage of (I think £2.75) however.....

since talking to him about it - he 'thinks' he may have read it!

Eek!

Mark7799

Yes, I'd agree with that. I tend to buy most of my books for reading from ebay, then sell them back again. Follow the golden rule - what you pay is your maximum bid PLUS P&P. With regard to setting postage, I use the kitchen scales, recycled envelopes and try and round up the postage costs to the next 50p to give me a margin of error (and a small contribution to ebay fees - yes I know this is naughty!). Bottom line will be can your product sell cheaper elsewhere - good example is the Da Vinci code, I was amazed that people were bidding £3/4 & p+p when Tesco were selling brand new paperback copies for £3.73.

gkf

I haven't got that book, but if anyone would like Mark Billingham's 'The Burning Girl' or Anita Shreve's 'Light on Snow' and are happy to send me £1.50 for each one to cover my postage costs etc, just pm me. There are plenty of these for sale on ebay, not worth the cost of putting them on there.

competitionscafe

I just bought a paperback book where they wanted £3.50 for postage (it's not a heavy book) - taking the p**s, but I wanted the book and it was 99p, so even with the exorbitant postage it was still half the price I could buy it new. Normally though, the bidders would push up the price and with the postage it would soon go higher than the retail price, people still buy though! On the other hand I bought quite a heavy book and the postage label was more than they charged me for the book and postage combined (so in theory they were making a loss) but as it was franked I think thye might have been naughty and posted it from work.

Sofa_Sogood

gkf wrote:

I haven't got that book, but if anyone would like Mark Billingham's 'The Burning Girl' or Anita Shreve's 'Light on Snow' and are happy to send me £1.50 for each one to cover my postage costs etc, just pm me. There are plenty of these for sale on ebay, not worth the cost of putting them on there.

Very generous But why not try Green Metropolis?

gmc_3

Sofa - Green Metropolis looks like a good site. Can you share any experiences?

Thanks

Sofa_Sogood

gmc wrote:

Sofa - Green Metropolis looks like a good site. Can you share any experiences?

Thanks

It can be very very slow to sell a book. But the momentum seems to pick up eventually.

The postage costs are met by yourself; I've listed a few, and what I've sold has made me £3 per book ... but I meet the postage and packaging costs. The buyers pay £3 and postage.

But all you have to do is list it (no pictures, just the ISBN), and wait.

Three quid's put into your account for each book sold. And if you want to enter a book as excellent, or just plain acceptable - you can! So if the postage is more than what's recommended ... you basically get £3 less postage. So maybe £2 and a bit? Maybe less even, depends what postage costs you want to burden yourself with. Some people pass on any excess postage costs to the customer. But it's all worked out for you on the site.

The postage costs are down to you as I said. It's a doddle to join, and easy, because they know the weights of all of the books - however many editions it has.

It's worth a whirl imo. Just type in GreenMetropolis.com and check it out.

On a money saving site like this, it might make you a couple of quid per book ... but I've never tried eBay for selling, or Amazon, so apart from buying on eBay, I can't make a comprehensive comparison. Although I once bought 8 good books, all p+p paid, off eBay ... for £7 lol

Good luck!

gkf

Thanks sofa, I hadn't heard of Green Metropolis, I will give it a go I just having books going to waste when I have finished with them. Sometimes give them to friends or charity shops.

hippypixie

I agree! But it isnt just books, some sellers charge the earth for postage on things and it really hacks me off. Ive seen sellers charge £6 postage and when its arrived you can see its only cost them about £1, and then you can see that they have used recycled packaging which hasnt cost them anything!

I try to keep the postage costs as low as I can for buyers or else I would feel that I was cheating people, as it is obviously just a way of making extra money for some sellers.

On the other hand though, I have seen it work the other way, when some poor seller has obviously totally misjudged the weight of something and not charged nearly enough. One seller sold me a pair of heavy boots and only charged £2.50 postage, and it really cost them almost £10 which was almost all the profit! I emailed them and offered more postage when I noticed, but she was kind enough to say it was her fault for not weighing them, and let me off.