Is there any point selling books with Amazon?

Ceamonster

I've just listed about 50 books with Amazon - with being unemployed at the moment, I thought I'd clear some clutter and make a few pennies. That seems to be all I can expect from this venture. For example, I've now sold 4 books for the princely price of about £7 in total. It's cost me this much in postage to send them out. If I could list them for a reasonable price (I don't know, maybe a quid? Most of them are pretty much good as new) I'd be okay but having to list them for 1p sort of defeats the object. How do people make any money (not a lot, but any money at all) at this? Quite frankly, if I'm not going to even cover my costs, I may as well give them to a charity shop, which is what I have always done before. Does anyone make any sort of profit at this? I'm assuming that because there are so many 1p listing, someone must be making something at least. And if so, how?

Not meaning to sound grasping, you know. Happy to give to charity but I could do with a few extra pounds at the moment.

Ceamonster

Thanks. Pretty much what I assumed. I've just gone and changed the 1p listings to a more reasonable price. If they don't sell, so be it. Oxfam etc can have them, and gladly

caseyjones_2

I don't sell for under a pound or two. The 1p listings come and go so you could get a few quid for something at the right time or not get anything.

anniewoo

I have had some success selling books on

http://www.greenmetropolis.com/

They guarantee £3.00 per book,so it is worth a try.I listed 12 books on there and I have sold 4 so far.

Some titles probably sell quicker than others,but as you have a large number of books to sell,then some of them should go.

Ceamonster

Thanks, I've heard of Green Metropolis and will go and check them out.

retrocircles

it's definitely only worth selling textbooks imo.

Mrs_Money

You've picked a rotten time, Ceamonster, to start selling books on Amazon - I've been selling books (mainly academic text books and A level study books) on Amazon for 2 years now - only in a small way as I teach part-time. I've averaged around 10 or 11 sales per month - not huge, I know, but some of the books were bringing me in £14 or £15 profit - however in the last 3 months I have sold only 12 books and they've been "cheapies" at 1p - only because everyone else was selling hundreds of that title at 1p and mine happened to find its way to the top of the list!
Amazon Marketplace sales have taken a huge dive in the last 6 months(you can read about it on the sellers' boards on Amazon) I suppose it's all part of the Credit Crunch.:(
Postage is a huge cost and Amazon have not increased their postage allowance in the 2 years I've been selling, although there have been several price rises. Any book over 2.50 cm thick will not go as a large letter, so that puts up costs immediately - any thick, heavy book will probably cost around £5 to send (2nd class) and some sellers are advertising them for under £1 - I don't know how they do it!
Becoming a Power Seller will not help much - I think this just gets you out of paying the .80p per sale fee- but it WILL cost you around £28 (not sure of exact amount) per month!!! And that's every month - so before I would even consider becoming a Power Seller, I would want to have been selling 40-50 books per month for quite a few months - and I've never even been able to source that many!! Charity shops appear to be putting up their prices and boot sales just sell tatty books that no-one else could want - or out-of-date text books (like law for example).
So I'm now looking for another on-line earner!

PS If you want to know how you can make money on a 1p listing - book must be under 2.5cm thick - must be sent second class and cost only 0.66p postage - must have cost you well under 0.75p to buy (or nothing preferably!!!) - then if you wrap in bubble wrap from the supermarket (free) and re-use envelopes - you may make 0.75p profit!! (all from the £2.75 p postage that Amazon gives you!). This is because Amazon pay you £1.41 for 1p listed book.

Cryogenic

I listed about 100 sci-fi paperbacks on Greenmetropolis about 3 mnths ago (the books remain listed for 6mnths). There is no listing fee,its easy to list as you just type in ISBN and a few words about condition. You can charge extra postage for heavy books, but you normally get £3 per book out of which you have to pay postage. So far a have sold about 30 books so I am fairly happy with the sucess rate.

Cryogenic

jo_b_2

It's well worth perservering with Amazon, so long as you factor in the postage costs when you set your prices.

There's an excellent thread with lots of tips on selling on Amazon HERE over on the ebay board.

It's a really friendly thread so don't be afraid to ask any questions you might have!

snoopy170

Have you tried play.com they do the same things but the price you get is higher and the listing fee a lot lower

snoopy170

Also tazbar.com or ebid.net both free to list and a small selling fee.