Q&A: Should I sell used books on eBay or Amazon.com?
Question: Should I sell used books on eBay or Amazon?
Answer: I prefer selling on Amazon because it is just so much more efficient than eBay (in most cases). You can list your books for sale much faster, and I believe they sell faster on Amazon because the buying process is so much simpler and easier for the buyers.
Another big plus in selling books on Amazon is that you can capture some sales from book buyers who go to Amazon, originally with the intention of buying a new book. They get to Amazon's site expecting to pay $20 for a new book, and notice that a used bookseller has the same thing they're looking for in excellent condition for only $10. So you get lots of sales on Amazon from people who hadn't even considered buying a used book.
However, there are some instances when I think it's good to sell on eBay. If you have a collection or assortment of one authors' books, you could sell it as a package. For example, if you had one copy of each book written by Stephen King, you could sell it as an "instant Stephen King collection" and it would surely receive lots of attention, and sell for more than you could get for each of the titles individually.
And there are lots of booksellers that believe if you have a truly unusual, collectible book, you can get a higher price by auctioning it on eBay than you can selling it at a fixed price on Amazon.
So even though I prefer selling on Amazon to eBay, I have active accounts on both sites because I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket. For example, what would happen if your whole business depended on Amazon, and one day Amazon decided they didn't want to allow independent sellers on their site anymore? In that case your whole business could go down the tubes. So I would recommend that sellers maintain an active eBay account, just to avoid becoming totally dependent on a certain sales venue.
Answer: I prefer selling on Amazon because it is just so much more efficient than eBay (in most cases). You can list your books for sale much faster, and I believe they sell faster on Amazon because the buying process is so much simpler and easier for the buyers.
Another big plus in selling books on Amazon is that you can capture some sales from book buyers who go to Amazon, originally with the intention of buying a new book. They get to Amazon's site expecting to pay $20 for a new book, and notice that a used bookseller has the same thing they're looking for in excellent condition for only $10. So you get lots of sales on Amazon from people who hadn't even considered buying a used book.
However, there are some instances when I think it's good to sell on eBay. If you have a collection or assortment of one authors' books, you could sell it as a package. For example, if you had one copy of each book written by Stephen King, you could sell it as an "instant Stephen King collection" and it would surely receive lots of attention, and sell for more than you could get for each of the titles individually.
And there are lots of booksellers that believe if you have a truly unusual, collectible book, you can get a higher price by auctioning it on eBay than you can selling it at a fixed price on Amazon.
So even though I prefer selling on Amazon to eBay, I have active accounts on both sites because I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket. For example, what would happen if your whole business depended on Amazon, and one day Amazon decided they didn't want to allow independent sellers on their site anymore? In that case your whole business could go down the tubes. So I would recommend that sellers maintain an active eBay account, just to avoid becoming totally dependent on a certain sales venue.
posted by Steve Weber at 12/05/2005
2 Comments:
Hello - I've enjoyed your blog, lots of great info here. As far as selling on Amazon, it seems like every book I look at listing, some dealer is selling it for $.50, even though other dealers on ABE and elsewhere are selling for reasonable prices. How are these people on Amazon making money selling $20 books for $.50? And how can you compete with them?
Yes, there are a lot books on sale for low prices on Amazon, that happens when the supply is really high and demand for that book is low. It used to be possible to squeeze about 50 cents of profit from selling "penny books" on Amazon -- assuming the seller got the book free, it weighed less than a pound, and could be mailed in a cheap bubble envelope.
But since the Postal Service raised rates last year (and Amazon didn't raise shipping credits for sellers) the days of squeezing profits from shipping fees are over. If the book isn't worth a few dollars, the best thing to do is donate to your local friends of the library or a local charity.
Some people I suppose go ahead and sell cheap books as a way to build up their feedback, but it can be a real hassle. People who buy very cheap books tend to be problem customers, they complain about everything.
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