Selling books on line?

[CarolAnn]

Have you ever sold a book through Amazon?

I just discovered one of my art books is listed at over $800 on Amazon.com - it's one I got at Goodwill for TEN CENTS! :o

Now I'm going over all of my books to see what they're listed for there - and the first 11 (not counting that one) are worth more than $500 if they sold at the going price. Some are worth almost nothing, some are worth a lot.

So I'd sure be interested in anyone who had done this. Do you get your money right away or once a month - or longer? Did shipping cost a lot? Any problems with the process?

Thanks for any input!!

[DonnaKay]

CarolAnn,

I have never sold a book on Amazon but I have bought a book from ebay for $200.00. Congrats on discovering your little gold mine right there in your own home.

What will you do with your $799.90 profit if you do sell ;D?

Donna

[CarolAnn]

I looked again today - and it's the PAPERBACK that's listed at more than $900. (The price went up overnight!) MY book is hard cover, and I found one for less than $5.00. Well, that figures!

It's the Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum: Paintings book. How odd that the soft cover is worth 20X what the hardback is from the same year! *???

How rotten that I have the wrong one! ::)

I'd still like to sell some of my books there - so if anyone has experience with Amazon, please post! Thanks!

[azbrat]

MY WIFE AND I BY OUR HOME SCHOOLING BOOKS ON EBAY. THEY ARE NORMALY A GOOD DEAL. ALSO I CONSIDER IT A GREAT WAY TO RECYCULE. CONGRAGULATION ! SHIPING ALSO DEPENDS ON WATE AND DISTANCE. WE JUST HADE OUR COMPUTER SHIPED IT COST ABOUT 50 BUCKS AND HAD IT IN A COUPLE OF DAYS.

[gump]

azbrat -

I have been selling on amazon over ebay. I like and you can see the price ranges available. I liked selling my books fast so I priced it a bit lower than the high-medium range and it usually sold fast. I think the fees are much much more reasonable than ebay. My reco is to be very honest in your description. I received high ratings after the first few and it sped up the rest of my sales b/c of the trust factor. Good place to sell and a nice profit on your behalf.

[JakeLeg]

i sold thru amazon's "marketplace" for used books for a while. mostly to thin out the shelves. made a little money, but i wouldn't want to do it on a full time basis. I found that going to the post office to drop off one book got tedious, which might change if you do it in a high volume. Then, i seem to remember 3 emails for each book sent: (1) the 'i got your order' email, (2) the 'i shipped your order' and (3) the 'thank you please leave me good feedback' email. revisiting each transaction multiple times got a little unnerving.

i'll probably continue to do it as the shelves get crowded, but i just couldn't see us relying on it for a large portion of our income.

[MYellowRose]

I'm glad to see this post myself because of the books I kept from my church library last year when I cleaned it out. I've got quite a few fiction, mostly hardcover, and still with the dust jacket on them. I may see if I can sell a few that way so I'll not only have a little extra money for myself but some to buy new items for the library when it reopens.

[ozarkinit]

what about the whole fee thing? I read over it, and it seemed confusing to me. Did you set up a separate bank account just for that?

[ryanmercer]

I've been selling on amazon and they are RIPPING ME OFF. My brother had to move in so I had to sell lots of my books *sobs* to make room for him...

Payments Received $487.58

Fees ($140.37)

Yes, out of the 487.58 I've made in the past few weeks, they have kept 140.37 of it as comission!!!

[ryanmercer]

azbrat -

I have been selling on amazon over ebay. I like and you can see the price ranges available. I liked selling my books fast so I priced it a bit lower than the high-medium range and it usually sold fast. I think the fees are much much more reasonable than ebay. My reco is to be very honest in your description. I received high ratings after the first few and it sped up the rest of my sales b/c of the trust factor. Good place to sell and a nice profit on your behalf.


What?!?!?! I say Amazon is a RIP OFF. They are charging me 28.78% comission. I've sold 487.58 in the past two weeks and they have kept 140.37 of it as comission!!!

[ozarkinit]

Ive been researching the fee thing further, and I see why your percent of commission was so high. For books, there is a 99cent per transaction fee, and a 1.20$ variable closing fee for each item no matter what. Then a 15% commission, so... if you sell a book for 10 dollars, the commission and fees equal $3.69, or 37% commission. If you sell a book for 100$, the fees and commission equal 17.19%, or just over 17% commission. So the higher priced your item, the less the commission, or screw the little guy....

I havenot researched the ebay fee thing yet. Seems it would be much easier to sell books on amazon, due to the set up of the program, rather than the fee thing.

What doesnot make any sense, though to me, is that I have seen an enormous amount of books on amazon for less than a dollar, some for one penny. How the heck does that work? Are there special exceptions to the rule somewhere? As a matter of fact, I bought a book off amazon today for 78 cents. It was a total of $4.77 shipping included.

[ryanmercer]

Ive been researching the fee thing further, and I see why your percent of commission was so high. For books, there is a 99cent per transaction fee, and a 1.20$ variable closing fee for each item no matter what. Then a 15% commission, so... if you sell a book for 10 dollars, the commission and fees equal $3.69, or 37% commission. If you sell a book for 100$, the fees and commission equal 17.19%, or just over 17% commission. So the higher priced your item, the less the commission, or screw the little guy....

I havenot researched the ebay fee thing yet. Seems it would be much easier to sell books on amazon, due to the set up of the program, rather than the fee thing.

What doesnot make any sense, though to me, is that I have seen an enormous amount of books on amazon for less than a dollar, some for one penny. How the heck does that work? Are there special exceptions to the rule somewhere? As a matter of fact, I bought a book off amazon today for 78 cents. It was a total of $4.77 shipping included.

I can't understand that. I buy most of my books on amazon used, have bought many of them at a penny... I sold one at a penny, and it ended up costing ME money instead of the buyer. As amazon took their fee and comission out of the shipping, which ate up all of the shipping and then some. They do offer some program where if you pay like 40$ a month they reduce your fees, but I think it's meant more for people who are selling hundreds of items a month.

[gump]

Depends. You wanna hang on to your book or sell it fast? I think Ebay is not a good place to list books and I do not think a lot of potential buyers go there to buy books unless it is a rare/hard to find book. I am not a large volume seller so I pay a bit more on the fee but I sell my books within a couple of days and the money is in my pocket for me to choose where to put it next. Just a matter of preference.

[oldnndway]

I sell some books and magazines on e-bay.
They charge some fees and it costs a little to get your money through pay-pal but it all works out pretty good and I don't have much hassle.
Getting set up is a bit of a pain but it ain't rocket science...shoot, I figured it out.

I pick up books at friends of library sales, garage sales, thrift stores, good will...pretty much wherever I find them and pay whatever they are priced at (if I want them or think I can turn a profit).

I also sell some other stuff on there time to time.
All in all I have found e-bay to be a very alternative to opening a brick-and-mortar type store.
They handle the infrastructure and I handle the inventory.
Works out well for me.

[zachweiss]

Greetings,

I am a newbie to the forum, but I figured I'd add my two cents!

As far as selling books on ebay....it can be VERY profitable.

One thing that I didn't see mentioned yet in this thread is BOOK LOTS. I regularly sell books in lots on ebay. I run the books through the auction by themselves a time or two and if they don't sell, I put them in lots based upon authors or genres. WORKS GREAT!


A DIFFERENT WAY TO GET BOOKS TO SELL:

I recently printed up around 500 fliers that said "CASH PAID FOR USED BOOKS" I put them around town, on bulletin boards....everywhere I could think of...

THE CALLS ROLLED IN! I started buying books like crazy.

(Think about it.....most of these people were going to just "give" the books to the goodwill)

I pay individuals for their books based on flats.....which is just a special box that I use - holds 15-20 regular sized books. I generally give $3.00 for a full flat of paperback books.

[bee_pipes]

I had a friend that started out in San Diego county many years ago. He moved down from Orange county with a car stuffed full of books, babbling about starting a used book store. I didn't think much of it, being in my 20's at the time. He did extremely well. He had been working at used stores for a few years and picked up a lot of tricks - really applied himself to learning the trade. There was a publication that used to come out - Bookman's Monthly (or Weekly...) that was the bible of the trade at the time. A lot of folks in the business ruined their eyes reading that pub - small print - but they were all devoted readers. His real cash cow was mail order for rare and out of print. His bread and butter was paperback books - a lot of Harlequin Romance and such - many of which he found in dumpsters and got for free just by carting off. He had a store, so these were a big, steady draw. He also had some great finds too - one time found a first edition of Twain's Jumping Frog of Calaverez County. He sold that one book for $4k. Found it in a Salvation Army store for 50 cents. The big book sales are the stuff legends are made of, but most of the business was the bread and butter sales. He told me once it isn't enough to have a book worth 4 grand, you also have to have a customer that wants the book so bad they are willing to part with 4 grand.

He's since lost the store, but is earning a good living selling through e-bay. Internet pretty much killed the business as he knew it, but he seems to have adapted well to the new playing field. He also picked up information about other things - old acrylic jewelry and other odds 'n' ends - things hed encounter when buying lots of books (he hit auctions, swap meets, flea markets, self-storage places, etc.) and would encounter this stuff.

You're right - there's a good living to be made out there from finding stuff and marketing it to the right audience. It's like anything else - the more you know about your market, the more efficiently you can crontrol cost and sales. Best of luck to you - sounds like you're onto something.

Regards,
Pat

[zachweiss]

WOW.....4K for a single book is amazing!

On a smaller scale......I had some Dark Shadows books from the late 60's sell for around $8.00 each! hahahah


(For all of us poor, redneck folks)

I know that there are people out there who want to make an extra buck, but they have absolutely no idea where to start...I am still learning the "market" and all of the hot selling authors, but I can tell you this....I have had really good luck selling ANYTHING by the following authors:

Debbie Macomber
Nicholas Sparks
James Patterson
John Sandford
Janet Evanovich
Nora Roberts
Richard Marcinko
R.L. Stine
Christopher Pike

These are what I call "NO-BRAINERS" If I see anything by these authors at garage sales, flea markets, auctions, etc....I immediately grab them!

I will gladly spend a quarter to make a dollar.....

Z

[bee_pipes]

Exactly - you got the idea. Watch your money-makers. Once you get used to buying from a used book store it just kills you to have to pay full price for a book. Sounds like you're getting a good handle on your market.

Regards,
Pat

[MYellowRose]

Although I don't sell my books online I have learned to wait a month or so after I see something new that I want and it will usually show up at Half-Price books. Case in point, there's a book at Wal-Mart called "The Horseman's Daughter" (or something close) don't remember the author but it interested me. Went to Half-Price out north of Loop 410, tony northside area, at the beginning of the month and sure enough it was on the shelf. I didn't get it though, instead I bought 3 books at $1 each which gave me more books for less money! LOL

[Lynnkay]

we;ve been selling books online for several years now at Half.com and have been happy with the results (no major money, just a little now & then, like others who've posted). We determine the best selling price by going first to www.fetchbook.info then set our price.

[Sarah]

Alas, Amazon is not for us. And EBay is so expensive!

We do little, if any, hardcopy or 'dead tree' sales. What duplicates we sell, we sell on OLA.com, which costs us $8 a month to list.

The trouble with Amazon is that 1) you must have ISBN or LOC# ($$$), 2) even with ISBN, if you are classed as 'electronic', you will get a very bad arm twist to 'Kendlize', 3) if you do not put your work in Kendle format, the auctions 'disappear'.

But otherwise I agree with the above.

One crevant, do not think the posted prices on Amazon are 'real'. I would bet that that $4k book was worth more, depending on condition.

Sarah
of the Librum

[zachweiss]

Sold 121 books on Ebay this week.......25 more will sell by Friday. (My goal is to be able to pay my house payment via ebay sales!)

Also, I bought 3 very nice hardback books at a yard sale the other day for $0.50 each.

(Anne Rice books)

The first book sold for $0.99 (Eh, doubled my money)
The second book sold for $7.50!
The third book sold for $10.50!

This is a huge profit from a simple $1.50 investment. (Do it a time or two and see how fast you get addicted!)

[MotherCharlotte]

Wow, that's great. I'm jealous of you. In Canada shipping is too expensive to make that worth it. I actually have sold books on eBay in the past and usually lost money because of the exorbitant prices charged by Canada Post.

[zachweiss]

I tried something different this time around.....instead of only listing 40-50 books, I listed 230!

I have been selling books on ebay (off and on) since last november........this past week has been the most success that I have EVER had with books!

(I start most of the books out at $0.01)

[rivahmom]

I also sell books through ebay and half. I found that fiction didn't sell to well for me. Controversal, homeschooling, how-tos and pagan books are my biggest sellers. I found two Dungeon and Dragon books at a thrift store for .25 cents each and sold them both for $50.00 I also put my books on craigslist if they don't sell after a while. It won't pay the rent but it gives me enough money to supply my book habit and have extra for a rainy day.

[zachweiss]

I found two Dungeon and Dragon books at a thrift store for .25 cents each and sold them both for $50.00

AWESOME! (Alot of those D&D books are worth some serioius dough!)

I'm currently at 160 books sold for the week. I have been back at it for 2-3 weeks now and I already have 4 or 5 solid repeat customers. It's blowing my mind! (I have actually sold to used bookstores in bulk before...would be nice to start doing that again!)

I have had outstanding luck with Paranormal Romance, GOOSEBUMPS, Alfred Hitchcock, Dark Shadows (from the 60's & 70's), Nora Roberts, James Patterson, Michael Connelly, V.C. Andrews, Christopher Pike......those have all been outstanding sellers for me!

I sold 5 alfred Hitchcock books for $15.50
I sold 3 different Dark Shadows books for $4.00-$5.00 each.

(I paid a nickel a piece for those small alfred Hitchcock and Dark Shadows books.....outstanding profit!!!)

[rivahmom]

I considered selling the romance and fiction as bulk lots on ebay but they keep raising the listing prices. I find it easier to trade them in at my local used book store so I can get my personal reading material on the cheap. A year ago I had 300+ books listed on half and it was taking up a large amount of space. Eventually I gave the ones that did not sell to the VFW for their annual yardsale. Hubby has forbidden me to have that many books on site at one time again. So, if it know it won't sell quick, I don't buy it.
On a side note, rare and unusual coins go for well above asking price on ebay. I started expanding to this recently.

[zachweiss]

In response to your idea about selling bulk lots on ebay....

Did you know that if you offer free shipping - ebay will "sell" you a 7-day listing (with BUY IT NOW!) for a nickel!

I see alot of booksellers selling lots of 15-20 books for a flat buy-it-now price and they offer free shipping. Seems to be working great!

I sold a Nora Roberts trilogy yesterday for $7.99 BUY IT NOW / FREE shipping. It sold about 5 minutes after I listed it...I was shocked!

Also....a little secret.... The USPS will send you free boxes right? I ordered 25 of the standard-sized shoe boxes and I cut them in half to make "flats" to keep my books in. I have around 350 books right now and they are all stacked very neatly and they take up very little space!

[softwarefilt]

I like to buy books online usually because it is cheaper than buying from a bookstore. Amazon has been pretty reliable for me, but I tend to prefer eBay because I want to build my experience there and get my reputation points up so that I can also develop my seller account.

I've never found a book of mine that was worth more than I paid for it, but if I did, and I didn't really need to keep the book, I would definitely sell it! Though I'm not sure how many seller fees a couple-hundred dollar book would incur.