Since I'm an ex-printer, I like printed things. That's why I love books and posters. When I first became interested in Amazon.com I took a look at my own book collection and found I didn't have much in the way of valuable books. I received an email last week from a reader who had the same experience. He purchased Selling on 'the River' and was disappointed to find penny booksellers selling the same titles he wanted to sell. He said,
Hi Steve
As you can see, I bought your book, and found it a fascinating read - I got quite excited!
However... I got a shock when I checked out some of my treasured personal books on Amazon and found they were for sale for $0.01. The same books were on offer at ABE Books for $1.00.
Question?... How does anyone make any money at those prices?
You state in your book that professional sellers hate the 1cent sellers, but there are dozens, hundreds +++ of books being sold by large book sellers at that measly price. I'm totally at a loss as to whether it is worth the effort to locate and sell books.
Any suggestions Steve, as to the way to handle this situation of minuscule prices?
I replied with this, and I thought it could be helpful to you all,
Thanks for buying my book. I had the same reaction when I dug through my personal collection of books. It seems some of them are not as scarce as I’d thought.
I often buy books by the box at garage sales here. I find that the mass-produced books are the least likely to bring a profit. But often I find at least one or two that are a little less common. I just found two books yesterday (at $2 each) that are listed for over $25 on Amazon.
As for the penny booksellers – I have sold two books this week for over $5 with other sellers listing along side me at much less. I try to be funny or clever in the condition comments to catch the shopper’s eye and it seems to work. Price the books for what they’re really worth and they will still sell.
When choosing books to sell though, it’s generally best to look for non-fiction, and titles that deal with very specific subjects. For example, when I look through a bunch of cookbooks, I look for “vegetarian”, or “how to make sausage”, instead of general cookbooks. I never buy anything published by National Geographic, Readers Digest, or Time/Life because there are likely a ton of them out there already. In non-fiction I look for books written for specific niche markets, often the author is a PhD and is writing to other PhDs.
I made nearly $100 yesterday on Amazon with used books that I think I paid about $5 for. So they are out there. You might want to check a site called www.theAuctionRebel.com for some inspiration. He has done quite a bit with books and even has a couple of reports you can download.
After taking my advice, I received this reply the following day (which made me feel like a proud poppa):
I got your message loud and clear, Steve - thanks for taking the trouble.
This old guy has just got smarter. I went to a s/h dealer who sells books for $1 each and picked up five, and one at an Op shop for 50c.
Checking on Amazon gives me a reasonable sell for each of:-
$15; $10; $30; $60; $10 - not bad eh!Thanks also for the link - I've had a quick look and will go into the site in more depth later.
There's a lot out there, learn to sell on Amazon and get to it!
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