New to selling books
Hi, Im new to selling books on FBA and was wondering what are the pitfalls i need to be aware of?
Already had one sold a book in France and it’s cost me a huge amount to sell the item.
Also how can I sell books none FBA and be competitive as loss of traders seem to be selling products for example £2.10 with free delivery when the delivery alone would cost £3.10?
New to selling books
Hi, Im new to selling books on FBA and was wondering what are the pitfalls i need to be aware of?
Already had one sold a book in France and it’s cost me a huge amount to sell the item.
Also how can I sell books none FBA and be competitive as loss of traders seem to be selling products for example £2.10 with free delivery when the delivery alone would cost £3.10?
0 replies
Seller_P9WE9DmQhKbaT
You can’t so don’t sell those books, unless you can increase your volumes to a level where you get much better postal rates, and can buy your stock for pennies or fractions of pennies. Simples.
Seller_QVpjrN1BsybDT
I would say that it is essential to have some knowledge of books! This may sound daft but you will find that a huge number of sellers of books on Amazon clearly have no idea what a a book is
Seller_58y2FhNkywdyp
hello, if i sell a book for £2.10 after fees amazon give me £1.27
if its a light thin book i pay 77p postage in a 2p envelope making me 48p
i buy the books for a charity outlet by the kilo and it works out about a penny a book so 47p profit.
sell a 100 a day for £48.00
luckily I go to the charity warehouse and pick just what i want to buy so most thicker than large letter sized books get left behind for the other larger book buying company they have.
after 11 years of selling books i have a good eye now for rarer titles and regularly pick up £10-20 books in with my purchase.
i hope this helps
Seller_RiVN2dcWY6xy9
Personally I wouldnt use FBA, sell them yourself, start with a perosnal account where you only pay commission when you sell. Once sale levels have regularly reached a position that you can cover the monthly fee you can then switch to a “professional” (I use the term loosey} account.
Dont sell overseas as Amazon shipping rates are totally inadequate unless you are using the professional plan and can set your own postage.
Take time to learn about what you are doing. Read professional book sellers decriptions on places like Abeooks (and I dont mean the mega sellers who describe books as “may have”
Be accurate in your descriptions and point out the flaws to avoid disappointed buyers.
Take time to learn book selling terminology
Remember, it is very difficult to make sufficient money to live on, selling books unless you either know what you are doing or you follow the megasellers strategy of having hundreds of thousands of books and sell em cheap
Unless you are prepared to take your time learning the trade you may as well pack up now unless you are just doing it for pocket money,
Use strong robust packaging a jiffy bag is an absolute minimum, books should ideally be wrapped in either bubble wrap or cardboard or both before being placed in a jiffy of brwon paper. Dont skim of packaging costs, dont buy cheap tape or padded envelopes.
I could go on for hours but I had to learn everything myself, so these are a few pointers only
Seller_DQUCTWPjSm8fp
My advice is to only sell items in the uk and be aware of Amazon’s fees. Overseas postage makes pricing items impossible. You would need to charge so much that even if overseas buyers are willing to pay, U.K. buyers will look for cheaper options.
Seller_zMdVY1OvvxqwA
As well as the transaction fees, with FBA you really need to watch out for storage fees when selling books. The crippling long term storage fees were the reason I stopped using FBA. Even after carefully selecting every title I sent to FBA for a quick sale, I was left with too many in storage to make it feasible.
Remember that once Amazon has your stuff in their warehouse you have to pay more for it to leave. You either pay for them to dispatch it, pay for them to store it, pay for them to send it back to you or pay them to dispose of it. FBA turned into an absolute money pit for me. My advice would be to get out while you still have your shirt.
Seller_vTdBBnIpfJN4v
A £9.99 book that sells via FBA will net you £4.99 profit before purchase price.
Seller_taDBgt7LctucW
I also prefer to sell the slightly higher priced books whenever I can find them. Thankfully, as I specialise in a relatively narrow field I soon get to know what’s worth money and what isn’t which makes finding a particular book that much easier.
The few weeks post-lockdown were really good for expensive stuff and I sold quite a few in the £300 - £500 range, with the best one being around £2000. It’s gone a little quieter now though and I’m back down to sales in the £10 - £40 range on average, though still the occasional three figure book. Cataloguing books for much under £10 always feels a bit like I’m working for nothing but I guess with the higher value sales mixed in it all works out at a reasonable average.
New books keep the cash flow going whilst I’m waiting for my next big sale, as they are so much quicker and easier to list. Just a shame that in order to be competitive margins on new books generally have to be much lower than that of second-hand books.
