posted on September 22, 2001 06:00:30 AM new
Hi all!
I just signed up to sell on Zshops and Marketplace yesterday.
I am hoping that it is going to be worth the cost and this I am sure I will soon find out. However, can any of you "already pros" out there tell me which is the best selling in? Zshops or Marketplace?
I have currently listed 41 books in Marketplace and checked the box for Zshops but am unsure if this is the most beneficial and profitable.
Any advice you can lend would be much appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Oreo
posted on September 22, 2001 08:22:22 AM new
All of my sales on Amazon come from Marketplace. Listing in Z-shop is automatic when listing in Marketplace (from what I understand).
I'm more concerned about why you signed up. A ProMerchant Account costs $40.00 so it's only worthwhile if you sell more than 40 books a month. Will you be listing more books? If you only have 41 listed, it's highly doubtful that you'll sell them all the first month and therefore the ProMerchant account will cost you more money.
posted on September 22, 2001 10:50:03 AM new
ihave more than 41 books on marketplace and amzn has shorted the listing days from 30 to 14 and it is a lot of work to relist manually on my own.
so i signed up for promerchant account to have these books auto relisted.
so time is a factor here.also if you have non books you want to sell,having an account allows you to list up to 40,000 items in z shop,also free listing if you sell in auction.of course all these mean nothing if nothing sells.
these days sales is very slow to none on amzn.
marketplace use to the best place to sell books,but now the words have spread and every one is listing there,also ebay half.com is giving some competition to amzn.
posted on September 22, 2001 11:10:30 AM new
Babarake
I just signed up last night at 5:00 pm. I feel that getting 41 listed between 5 and 10 was good considering I do have a family to take care of as well. I have over 10,000 books to list which is why I signed up! I don't know anyone who could list all of them in that time frame.
Also, so far I have sold 3 of the books that I had listed.
I was just wondering if anyone else used Marketplace and how they felt about it.
posted on September 22, 2001 11:12:06 AM new
Also you don't have to sell 40 books a month. That is assuming that all the books I would be selling were only a dollar. In the 3 that I have already sold I have made $22.00 that is more than have the $40.00.
posted on September 22, 2001 03:04:31 PM new
In theory if those 3 books are all that you happen to sell this month you will have paid $40 + 15% commission for them. In contrast, without a Pro Merchant account, it would have cost you $2.97 + 15%.
In general you come out ahead when you sell over 40 books a month with a PM Account because you are no longer paying the $.99 listing fee per book. If you sell 41 books you save $1, 42 books saves you $2, etc...
I think that barbarake was just pointing out that it's usually not wise to pay the Pro Merchant fees unless you have enough books to justify it. If you have 10,000 books to list you'll do fine...obviously the sooner you get them listed the sooner you'll be making (and saving) money.
posted on September 22, 2001 03:13:11 PM new
I have been selling on Marketplace since last October and before that Zshops and Auctions. Its great when it works, there are daily glitches and glitches that last all week. Last weekend it was down all weekend and this weekend also it is down. I would advise that you sign on to the seller chat board at http://www.delphi.com/my-forums and see what all the other sellers have to say. It you are doing this part-time it is allright. But do not plan on paying the rent/mortgage, lights, etc. Sometimes marketplace accounts are shut down all week. When it works, I sell 15-25 books, cd's videos and dvd's a day, when it is down 0. I also list on other sites and have my own website. But if I had to depend on Amazon, I would be sadly out of business
posted on September 22, 2001 03:16:19 PM new
That's true about the cost if I did not have a PM account accept for the fact that they have been listed at auction 3 times and never sold!
Since starting my PM account yesterday I have now sold 10 books and over $75.00 in sales. So I guess I now have my answer and I haven't even completed listing them all.
CS: Thank you so much! That is the type of info I was looking for when asked opinions!
posted on September 22, 2001 03:31:49 PM new
Here is a reply from Amazon regarding my e-mail to them about being down most of this month.
Dear Margaret,
Thank you for taking the time to write to us at Amazon.com in regard to your listings.
While I'm unable to give you an exact reason why this is happening, I can assure you that our technical staff was aware of this and is now resolved.
Per our Participation Agreement, our site and our services are provided on
an "As is" basis. Amazon.com makes no other representations or warranties of any kind.
Please know that merchandising fees associated with listing are not
refundable.
I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please let us
know if you have any further questions or concerns. Thank you for
selling with Amazon.com.
Best regards,
Marc L.
http://www.amazon.com
Check out the Seller Announcement Board!
http://prospero.amazon.com/am-sellannounce
The problem is NOT resolved, but this is the answer we always get. You pay $39.99 no matter how many books you sell. But if you check the sellers board you will find that no one is havng any sales, so you were lucky to have sales when everyone else's account is not functioning properly. We also feel that they cycle the accounts on and off and when they are having a book promotion of their own, they turn us off. When you have no sales, you can check you listings and they will sale "Not available for Sale" This is possible as I was a computer programmer before I was a book seller. We have to make enough for the bills, not just the $39.99. I ISP costs $40.00 a month also to be online. I was doing auctions last year until they died also after Amazon took the auction tab off the front page. I would make it a daily habit to check the sellers discussion board so you can have a heads up to what is happening with your sales. I am seriously considering quitting Amazon. It is that serious. My sales used to be close to $5,000 a month.
