Q&A: What should I do with my penny books?
QUESTION: I've got a bunch of books that are practically worthless on Amazon Marketplace. Should I give them away? Why do sellers even bother listing things worth less than $1? What am I missing?
ANSWER: You're right, it's not worth listing a book for sale unless you can reasonably expect to make a few dollars' profit.
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. Several Marketplace penny sellers with access to cheap paperbacks built businesses around 1-cent books.
But since the Postal Service raised rates a few months ago (and Amazon didn't raise shipping credits for sellers) the days of squeezing profits from shipping fees are over.
Yet some sellers still offer two rationales for selling cheap books:
Building your feedback score.
Sure, it would be great to build a track record as a seller without spending much on stock, but it doesn't work very well. Customers who buy cheap books are notoriously hard to please. You'd think someone buying a book for a penny wouldn't have much to complain about -- but believe me, they find a way. These are the folks who will e-mail you daily when their book doesn't arrive after four days. These are the folks who complain that shipping cost $3.49 but you only spent $2 on postage. And so on. Not all penny-book buyers are a pain, but an unusually large percentage of them are. On the other hand, the folks who pay $75 and up for a book are usually the ones who have nothing but good things to say -- if you hear from them at all.
Retaining e-mail addresses.
Selling books only to mine Amazon e-mail addresses is not a great idea either. Amazon's participation agreement prohibits sellers from contacting buyers except to fulfill orders. In other words, Amazon can (and does) boot sellers from their site for unauthorized contact with buyers or disclosure of customer information.
And with all the recent trouble over e-mail viruses and phishing scams, it's only a matter of time before Amazon eliminates direct e-mail contact between buyers and sellers anyway. They've already rolled out a Web-based contact form for buyers' questions.
The bottom line is, if you have some cheap books on hand, save yourself some headaches and donate them to your local library or charity.
ANSWER: You're right, it's not worth listing a book for sale unless you can reasonably expect to make a few dollars' profit.
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. Several Marketplace penny sellers with access to cheap paperbacks built businesses around 1-cent books.
But since the Postal Service raised rates a few months ago (and Amazon didn't raise shipping credits for sellers) the days of squeezing profits from shipping fees are over.
Yet some sellers still offer two rationales for selling cheap books:
Building your feedback score.
Sure, it would be great to build a track record as a seller without spending much on stock, but it doesn't work very well. Customers who buy cheap books are notoriously hard to please. You'd think someone buying a book for a penny wouldn't have much to complain about -- but believe me, they find a way. These are the folks who will e-mail you daily when their book doesn't arrive after four days. These are the folks who complain that shipping cost $3.49 but you only spent $2 on postage. And so on. Not all penny-book buyers are a pain, but an unusually large percentage of them are. On the other hand, the folks who pay $75 and up for a book are usually the ones who have nothing but good things to say -- if you hear from them at all.
Retaining e-mail addresses.
Selling books only to mine Amazon e-mail addresses is not a great idea either. Amazon's participation agreement prohibits sellers from contacting buyers except to fulfill orders. In other words, Amazon can (and does) boot sellers from their site for unauthorized contact with buyers or disclosure of customer information.
And with all the recent trouble over e-mail viruses and phishing scams, it's only a matter of time before Amazon eliminates direct e-mail contact between buyers and sellers anyway. They've already rolled out a Web-based contact form for buyers' questions.
The bottom line is, if you have some cheap books on hand, save yourself some headaches and donate them to your local library or charity.
posted by Steve Weber at 2/21/2006
2 Comments:
I used to think that flipping a few penny books fast would help me build up a good feedback record fast. Rather than doing it for the pittance earned, I considred penny books were at least time well invested into building a better business image, which then would help me sell the more expensive books better. After all, when somebody receives a brand new book for a mere cent, the result would be lots and lots of positive feedback, right? To really boost my overall rating, right? Wrong! Stay away from Penny Books. The people who buy brand new books for a mere cent are impossible to please! They are the ones who leave a disproportionally large number of negative feedbacks. This is no joke - the cheaper the book the more likely it is to receive bad feedback, unless of course you, the seller, mess up! I received two less than perfect ratings this month: a 1 cent and a 2 cent book, both brandnew, carefully shipped in bubble wrap, First Class, same day. ("Book okay, could have shipped faster") The second person replied to my email that I should have wrapped the book better. "You could at least have wrapped some newspaper around it and not just stick it in an envelope") These "books" were thin, 20 page childrens Early Readers paperbacks shipped in a BUBBLE envelope. Extra wrapping inside bubble? For a cent? No kidding.... This is exactly what you get yourself into when you sell penny books.
I am interested in buying large quantities of "penny books" at a time, anything newer(last ten years), and in a like new condition. Hardcovers, kids, mmpbks, trade pbks. Use your judgement, if the books look resellable send them to us, no dictionary's, encyclopedia's, missing dust jackets, date-revelet, writing, remainder marks, ect. Will pay all shipping(media mail on small volumes) or Semi- loads. Currently buying one semi a month and would like to double the volume. Please email treasurebooks119@hotmail.com ,thanks AJ.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home