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THE 30-DAY CHALLENGE
DAILY JOURNAL
Beginning Selling Books on Amazon, eBay and the Internet
Setting Up Strategies
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| The time has come. I have decided to start selling used books online.
I recently got my hands on a copy of Skip McGrath’s new eBook “How to Sell Used Books on eBay, Amazon, and the Internet”. I will make this my bible for the duration.
Skip has promised me that he will look over the journal and add his comments and suggestions to what I hope will be a profitable venture. He will be the expert and I will be a guinea pig. Once the 30-day challenge is complete, I will publish a downloadable PDF eBook so that it may be helpful to you if you decide to start selling used books.
Before I just run out and start buying dozens of used books, I decided to make up some ground rules.
- I will NOT spend more than $100 for my initial book purchases. This should work well, since most used books stores in Chicago sell their inventory for an average of $1.00 ea.
- I will pick only books that are in top notch condition. I mean they have to look brand new. No marks, bends, scratches or writing inside.
- I will concentrate on smaller, lighter weight books vs. the heavy coffee table volumes. Until I start listing and understanding how Amazon.com accounts for shipping costs, I will be cautious.
- I will purchase in a wide variety of topics such as children’s books, specialty cooking books, old books from 1940’s will be acceptable.
- I will purchase no more than 10 at a time, return home and research the value, then return to the store to select more. Since this is all new to me and there are literally millions of books out there, I want to gain some confidence in my choices..
- I will keep track of all my purchases and expenses incurred during the sale. I want to make sure I am making some decent profits from this. This will also include the time I spend on this project.
- I will list more books on Amazon.com because there are no listing fees and the product doesn’t expire in 7 or 30 days. So, I can just keep adding to the listings.
- Books listed on eBay.com will more than likely be sets of books. i.e. Andy Hardy mystery novels.
Come back tomorrow evening and I will have a report for you on my first day of shopping. The ups and downs. |
Tags: Amazon, Books, eBay, Selling, Used Books
Posted in Amazon, eBay
Sally,
Good luck with the challenge!! I have a suggestion for you. Buy the $5.00 per month ISBN service for use on your cell phone. This will be the best money you have ever spent!!! I was purchasing books without it, and found out that I was not optimizing my investment. I purchased the service and it totally eliminated my guess’s for what I “THINK” will sell. Skip’s methods are sound and I have really started to take off with my Amazon book sales.
You may want to take a look at BookScouter.com which is a website that compares prices from a bunch of book-buying sites. These sites may not pay as much as Amazon, but they are a sure-sale, meaning that you don’t have to place it on the marketplace and wait for it to sell.
Hi Sally:
Good luck with your challenge. Looks like you are off to a good start. After reading your blog - here are a couple of comments.
1. Be careful rejecting the large heavy coffee table books. Some of them are quite valuable. Even if you lose a couple of bucks on shipping you can make some good money. Now that you have your cell phone tool you can check those prices too.
2. Try books both on eBay and Amazon. For some reason books from a really narrow niche sell pretty well on eBay. I don’t always get a higher price on eBay but I often get a faster sale. Remember the lesson on turning your inventory over faster for profits. The other category that sells well on eBay are “how to” books of almost any topic.
3. Take a look at listing your books on eBay in the new Fixed Price format. eBay is having a fee sale from now through the end of the year in that format. I have listed a few books that way and they turned over pretty fast.
So good luck - I will be watching to see how you do.
Skip McGrath