posted on February 9, 2006 02:40:02 AM new
I have boxes and boxes of books. I have books on almost any subject. Hardback, and paperback books. Very good condition, and not so good condition but 1st editions. I would like to sell them if I could, but not sure the best place for them, ebay, half.com, or?
Some of the hardback books are in excellant condition, but may have a tiny tear in the jackets, or a little curl to the jacket, but the book itself is fine. Some are children's books, some are how to books, gun guides, car repair, and so forth. I have books on the Titanic, Movie Stars, etc.
Wonder if it is worth even trying to sell any of these? I recently listed one very nice book on ebay and only had 1 hit on it. I can't remember EVER only having only "1" hit on anything, ever in all of my auctions! Maybe that was just a fluke, but thought I would ask for some input from you all before I try any more.
I have thought also of maybe just putting them up on my web site, and letting them sit there until they are sold, or try listing them with some groups like yahoo groups, that allow for listing items for sale.
I would love to keep some of these, but no place to put 100's of books at home. Don't want to just keep them boxed up and store them either. What are some ideas?
posted on February 9, 2006 04:44:27 AM new
BEWARE of amazon, if you are a new seller and you get a bad post on your rating, your account will be closed and your funds frozen for 3 mths. I have 4k frozen up until April in my amazon account because amazon closed my account after I sold many chess games during the x-mas holiday, when I received a couple of bad ratings, and refunded a few buyers my account was closed and my money locked up unitl 3 mths passed after the account was closed, they said to make sure that all complains were cleared up but I think it is BS. I would not recomed amazon as a buyer can leave you a bad rating for any reason and you have no way of fighting it.
posted on February 9, 2006 09:01:17 AM new
I've found Amazon to be a good place to sell books. I would recommend looking there first, if only to see average selling prices. Might at least give you a way of sorting through the titles and finding those that might be of some value.
Amazon Marketplace doesn't charge a listing fee. They take their cut when and if the item sells. I'm sure there are disadvantages, as another poster mentioned, but my experience with them thus far has been quite good.
Alternately, as you mentioned not having storage space for 100's of books, you might try putting together small lots organized by similar subject matter or author to try on ebay.
posted on February 9, 2006 09:52:23 AM new
I sell books on AMZN marketplace,it does not charge a listing fee but the commish is a steep 15% and transaction fee is 99 cents when the book is sold.
Unless you have an account with them (39.99 a month),you have to relist your books every 6 weeks which gets to be a big pain if you have many books expiring on the same day.
Books listed on AMZN must have an ISBN number.
39.99 a month will also give you a ZSHOP ,with Zshop,you can do whatever you like ,list upto 40,000 items -books with no ISBN ,non books etc.
But nobody goes to Zshop.
Lately AMZN has been sacking sellers left and right,as it has a buyer satisfaction program which reimburse the buyer when they are not happy with the purchase and the seller would not do anything about it.
posted on February 10, 2006 04:43:46 AM new
You can always do what I do now, donate the books to the Friends of the Library and let them worry about selling them while you take the tax write off and use your time to do other things.
The only books that I have had luck with were old ones that collectors were after. It seemed to me that there were a higher percentage of deadbeat bidders and bidders with "attitudes" in the book categories with the exception of the higher priced (over $50)collectibles.
posted on February 10, 2006 11:30:19 PM new
Yeah, the buyer satisfaction program just plain sucks - Amazon doesn't really seem to care if the sellers are screwed, they basically refuse to talk to you on the phone, and I challenged one of these via email, and after going back and forth, they actually told me they would not talk to me via email either - Not leaving me with many options. I sell a lot on amazon, but I won't sell anything that I can't afford to take a loss if I have to. Amazon sucks in that matter, but if someone does get your money and your merchandise, sellers have one more option, and that is to file a fraud case with the USPS postal inspectors. I did this to a customer, and it worked - As soon as she got the letter that she was under investigation and could go to jail, she couldn't get the money to me fast enough.
I've only had a few of these claims filed against me, mostly for non delivery. I've won every one of those, because I use eDC. I lost the one I had to go to the authorities (Amazon would not help me) and I also lost another though that buyer did ship me back the item - Though Amazon boldly told me that they were not required to, that was only if they wanted to.
Chessguy - As far as amazon having thousands in your money, why would you not transfer the money to your checking account? I do so several times a week - You can do that daily! I have negative feedback too, what gives you the idea that is what caused the problem? Feedback means less on amazon, and while lots of buyers on ebay leave feedback, they just don't on amazon unless it is a negative!
As far as books go, good luck! I will buy a book if I know my markup is huge, but just too many items selling under a dollar to make it really worthwhile!
posted on February 11, 2006 02:27:42 AM new
this is just a suggestion;
on Google they have groups in many communities. you can post anything on your community site to sell or many have a group where you can offer items for free just to get rid of them....freecycle groups.
i have cleaned my closets through the freecycle group for my community. the items i have offered have been picked up in hours.
you post it and then people who want the item reply..
posted on February 11, 2006 05:37:17 AM new
If you're going to sell first editions you ought to go look at a lot of book auctions and note how the descriptions are written and what kind of descriptive terms are used along with acceptable condition statements. There are standards these people follow and they're real serious about it. Serious book collectors are the pickiest bunch of anal retentive beady-eyed sonsabritches I've ever dealt with. They'll give you a FB spanking if you DARE incorrectly or incompletely describe a book. A good place to check values and descriptions is ABE Books, which is a website of independent booksellers from all over the place. You can search by author, title or ISBN number. You'll get a bunch of different hits from different sellers and then you can estimate the value of your own volume.
posted on February 11, 2006 06:45:59 AM new
Internet turns all of us into wannabee retailers,many buy to resell on Ebay /Amzn/Yahoo etc.
Sometimes they cant resell,so they make excuse and want to return the item,sometimes they dont understand what the item is and think they know what it is,so big disappointment !
The margin is so thin and the work is so laborious,no seller can afford returns,worse,returns with shipping both ways absorbed by the seller.
When will this game end??
But then there are some honest buyers and sellers out there,2 Xmas agos I sold a book to someone who claimed he did not get the book and asked me to send another copy,I thought it is just another scam,what do you know ,10 months later,he returned one of the copies!!
/ lets all stop whining !! /
posted on February 11, 2006 01:20:25 PM new
Fluffy's rules when buying books for resale:
-If it looks like it might have been remaindered from Barnes and Noble AND does not have a very, very specific subject, don't buy.
-Esoteric books on specific subjects often sell well and are worth the risk if you buy low. I went to the estate sale of a woman who was a weaver and bought all her books. They did well on eBay.
-Be really careful with Christmas books. Lots of reprints out there, and there's a limited selling season anyway.
-Foreign language books on specific subject matter may be quite valuable. I bought a thrift shop book on Russian silver for $1 and sold it for several hundred on eBay.
-Generally, avoid recent fiction. For older fiction, know which books are valuable because of the artist's plates (Harrison Fisher, Maxfield Parrish, etc.)
-General guides to antiques you can safely avoid. Personally, I don't buy anything by the Kovels.
Occasionally I get saddled with a stinker of a book anyway -- J.M. Barrie's "The Little Minister" with Katharine Hepburn on the dust jacket is still languishing, waiting for a new home.
posted on February 11, 2006 01:34:19 PM new
some books get interesting say after 50,60 years!
I have a book on Genghis Khan and some of the illustrations are interesting-the parade,the different regiments,archers practising archery and the costumes of different military personnel.
posted on February 11, 2006 01:47:28 PM new
Good List Fluffy - Textbooks should be added - Buy only very recent books, not older than a year or two - They change editions quickly. I've purchased current edition textbooks at book sales at a community college for $1 and sold it for $80. However, if you purchase a previous edition, that will be more like $5, and two previous editions prior is like 0!
posted on February 11, 2006 02:06:47 PM new
I think Steve probably had the best idea for general books: flea market. There are a couple of sellers locally at electronics flea markets who bring banana boxes full of books, plop 'em on the ground, and accept $1 per book or $2 to $5 for better books.
If it works out well, replenish your stock by buying garage sale leftovers, and there you go. Take sunscreen, a lawn chair and some change.
I've found some wonderful books buying from these people.
posted on February 12, 2006 01:01:00 PM new
I have 3 skids (pallets) of library school books any body want them? I purchased 1 skid and got 3 when I went to pick them up. I was going to put them on Amazon until Amazon closed my sellers account and held my freaking money. When I talked to them they said that my account was closed because my feedback did not meet there standards. For god's sake I had just started selling in Nov. then I get canned in Jan for having a neg feedback.
ebayvet, I was to new to Amazon to realize that I could take my money ahead of the 15 day automatic withdraw period. Now I know but it's to late. And so now I have to wait 3 mths after the closed day of the account to take my money out. 3 FREAKING months before I can take my money out that’s until April before I can take my money out, it would not be so bad if it was only a couple of hundred bucks but its several thousand bucks that hurts. OH well the good thing is that I do this selling stuff as a hobby and do not depend on the money to make a living. Otherwise I would be hurting. I feel sorry for those folks that make a living out of these website (ebay & Amazon). They are at the mercy of the websites even if they do NOTHING wrong. By the way the neg feedback that I received was because the buyer received a broken chess set, that was damaged during shipping. I immediately gave him a refund then he neg. me knowing that I could not respond or retaliate to his feedback.
posted on February 12, 2006 01:17:49 PM new
I dont know why they pick on a new seller,AMZN has many bad sellers who cant find their books,never ship their books or ship the wrong books.
There is this 68 years old retiree who sells on AMZN for 8 years and they threw him out,he needs that extra income.
/ lets all stop whining !! /
posted on February 12, 2006 01:31:07 PM new
68 yrs old, that's amazon for you or even ebay, they do not care who they kick out. This is the reason why I will never quit my day job and work for ebay or amazon, now, I will quit my job and run my own B&M business and use ebay and amazon as tools but not totaly depend on these 2 avenues for sales. The line is to thin to walk on, and it is to easy to fall off.
I've been selling on ebay way before it was even ebay and in this time I have had my ebay account closed 2 times, every time I have come back with some rest time in between, but both of the times I was kicked off was because of some idiot that had nothing better to do but click on all my auctions and find any little thing to report me to ebay for it. I have now learned from those mistakes but still you never know when ebay will decide to pick on you. Over the x-mas holiday I had my account closed for incorrect phone number, I forgot to change it when I moved and got the new number, I also had my paypal account frozen for a charge back. Had my amazon closed in Jan, and now paypal wants my SSN to verify my paypal account that I have had since paypal opened it's door. Screw them, I am not given them my SSN #. I have learned to have 2 accounts for everything, ebay, paypal and even amazon. There is always, ALWAYS ways around the system.
chessguy.
[ edited by chessguy on Feb 12, 2006 01:39 PM ]
posted on February 15, 2006 03:05:12 PM new
Who is Voldemart?
Check AddAll using an ISBN number of Author and Name of Book.
Check mid-range asking price; remember this is the asking price of the book - not the sale price.
Wholesalers and Remainder sellers have listed thousands of non-described common books with no description. Low listing price and usually higher Shipping costs and often carpy packaging and service.
Check out eBay Community, Look for Discussion Groups: Booksellers. It is a dynamite forum with fantastic Selling information on books. Chris
posted on February 16, 2006 04:46:20 AM new
You should read more books. Voldemort is the arch-villain of the Harry Potter series...the very essence of evil.
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posted on February 16, 2006 04:58:38 AM new
Thanks profe51
I'M A VORACIOUS READER but rarely read Childrens Fantasy though I did try the Potter books - gave them to our nephews. I do like C.S. Lewis Narnia, but mostly his books on Christianity. Right now I'm reading the 9/11 Report (talk about Fantasy) and a book about the Mountain Massacres in Utah involving pioneers from Arkansas, and an "alleged" massacre by Mormoms and Native American Indians. I also highly recommend a new Finance book titled MONEY; A MEMOIR by 'Money, a Memoir: Women, Emotions, and Cash,' by Liz Perle - The New York Times Book Review -
An exploration of why women have so much trouble dealing with money. ... In "Money, a Memoir..." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11024059/from/RSS/. I ENJOY YOUR HUMOUR.
