Ebay- any tips?

StephenKingman · Post by **StephenKingman** » 12 Nov 2011, 13:53

Hi people, i have been trying to sell a lot of my books recently on eBay but i cant get the hang of it yet, from a look at all the books out there, it always seems someone will be selling at a rock bottom price of, say 3euro for a mint-condition book, so you can hardly sell yours for 5 or 10 euro when there is a lower price available, plus it seems people are simply not buying much these days as most books just dont sell, or even get bids on them. I have tried selling 5 books (pictured and described clearly) recently but no luck at all. I dont want to just flog all my books in a box when i could make some money off it. Any eBay users with tips on selling books?

By the way, im a new user with no feedback so that could be affecting it but im slowly changing that by buying a few things here and there and building up my profile.

Any advice would be much appreciated thanks a lot people

Ant · Post by **Ant** » 12 Nov 2011, 14:11

Give them to charity, it will make you feel good.

Eckhart Aurelius Hughes · Post by **Scott** » 12 Nov 2011, 23:41

One thing to look for when people are selling at seemingly rock bottom prices is the shipping charge. A lot of these sellers will sell something for as low as 1 cent, but then pad the shipping and handling by $5 or so or even more and then pocket the money from that.

The other issue is seller rating. Many buyers would much rather pay a little more to deal with a seller who has not only a high seller rating but who has a lot of ratings and has been selling for a while. There is not much you can do about that if you are just trying to sell a few things rather than make a part-time business out of it like many sellers.

StephenKingman · Post by **StephenKingman** » 18 Nov 2011, 14:13

Thanks for the advice guys im going to try to be a bit savvy about what im selling.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » 18 Nov 2011, 15:10

Mike, have you thought of the car boot sales? I've never been to one myself but I know people around here who spend nearly every Sunday at them ... buying and selling.

StephenKingman · Post by **StephenKingman** » 18 Nov 2011, 17:10

Fran wrote:Mike, have you thought of the car boot sales? I've never been to one myself but I know people around here who spend nearly every Sunday at them ... buying and selling.

Hmm, never really considered that Fran, i guess i have just been thinking of online as i know no bookshops will buy them but if i cant get anywhere i will head to Callan just outside Kilkenny, they have car boot sales there, thanks for the tip!

Bighuey · Post by **Bighuey** » 18 Nov 2011, 20:37

Books are hard to sell these days. Ive tried to sell them at swap meets, yard sales but never had much luck. I usually end up giving them to a thrift store. Especially mush books, nobody wants those.

StephenKingman · Post by **StephenKingman** » 19 Nov 2011, 03:48

Bighuey wrote:Books are hard to sell these days. Ive tried to sell them at swap meets, yard sales but never had much luck. I usually end up giving them to a thrift store. Especially mush books, nobody wants those.

Yeah i have been researching tips on eBay and basically if a load of other people have listed a book at a cheap price but got no bids then its a waste of time for you to do the same; either sell off a lot of books for a reasonable price as a bundle or only sell unusual or offbeat books.

A24 · Post by **A24** » 21 Nov 2011, 08:24

Mike, I've tried selling a few on Ebay and some sold, some not. My cousin sells a lot of books but she uses Amazon. When people think of books, that is where they usually go first. I've never sold on Amazon myself and I'm not sure how to go about it, but I know I've gotten much better deals there for used books rather than pay full price for new.

StephenKingman · Post by **StephenKingman** » 21 Nov 2011, 08:37

A24 wrote:Mike, I've tried selling a few on Ebay and some sold, some not. My cousin sells a lot of books but she uses Amazon. When people think of books, that is where they usually go first. I've never sold on Amazon myself and I'm not sure how to go about it, but I know I've gotten much better deals there for used books rather than pay full price for new.

Cheers for the info, i have got one bid on a book im selling at the moment and thats because i lowered the asking price considerably, you have to when you see so many other sellers getting nowhere with their offers. The main problem is people arent buying at the moment or are being very picky.

A24 · Post by **A24** » 21 Nov 2011, 11:34

StephenKingman wrote:
A24 wrote:Mike, I've tried selling a few on Ebay and some sold, some not. My cousin sells a lot of books but she uses Amazon. When people think of books, that is where they usually go first. I've never sold on Amazon myself and I'm not sure how to go about it, but I know I've gotten much better deals there for used books rather than pay full price for new.
Cheers for the info, i have got one bid on a book im selling at the moment and thats because i lowered the asking price considerably, you have to when you see so many other sellers getting nowhere with their offers. The main problem is people arent buying at the moment or are being very picky.

You are right Mike - people aren't buying and not just books. I used to sell a lot of stuff on Ebay and it always sold rather easily. Not anymore! I find I have to keep relisting and then wonder if it is worth it at that point.

StephenKingman · Post by **StephenKingman** » 21 Nov 2011, 13:33

^ I will post my eBay link here if i cant get any offers soon, im sure there are a lot of eBay members here and it makes sense to have a thread dedicated to buying selling or trading books and magazines.

Dragonflytears · Post by **Dragonflytears** » 21 Nov 2011, 14:06

StephenKingman wrote:
A24 wrote:Mike, I've tried selling a few on Ebay and some sold, some not. My cousin sells a lot of books but she uses Amazon. When people think of books, that is where they usually go first. I've never sold on Amazon myself and I'm not sure how to go about it, but I know I've gotten much better deals there for used books rather than pay full price for new.
Cheers for the info, i have got one bid on a book im selling at the moment and thats because i lowered the asking price considerably, you have to when you see so many other sellers getting nowhere with their offers. The main problem is people arent buying at the moment or are being very picky.

Hi Mike,

We pulled our titles from eBay due to slow sales. We do still have them listed on Half.com which is owned by eBay and the prices range for selling is a bit better. However, I would say Amazon is are biggest third party vender. We sell our product through their Market Place and you see books listed from a penny up to hundreds of dollars. I would say 85% of our sales come from our Amazon customers.

StephenKingman · Post by **StephenKingman** » 21 Nov 2011, 14:12

Dragonflytears wrote:
StephenKingman wrote:
A24 wrote:Mike, I've tried selling a few on Ebay and some sold, some not. My cousin sells a lot of books but she uses Amazon. When people think of books, that is where they usually go first. I've never sold on Amazon myself and I'm not sure how to go about it, but I know I've gotten much better deals there for used books rather than pay full price for new.
Cheers for the info, i have got one bid on a book im selling at the moment and thats because i lowered the asking price considerably, you have to when you see so many other sellers getting nowhere with their offers. The main problem is people arent buying at the moment or are being very picky.
Hi Mike,

We pulled our titles from eBay due to slow sales. We do still have them listed on Half.com which is owned by eBay and the prices range for selling is a bit better. However, I would say Amazon is are biggest third party vender. We sell our product through their Market Place and you see books listed from a penny up to hundreds of dollars. I would say 85% of our sales come from our Amazon customers.

Hi Patti, thanks for the info, i have browsed Amazon for the purpose of selling my books but a lot of the sellers are American so postage would be quite a lot, im considering setting up a trade thread in the forum for members here who would like to buy sell or trade books im sure there are loads of people here who would like such an option.

I wil check out Half.com now as im not aware of them thanks.

Dragonflytears · Post by **Dragonflytears** » 21 Nov 2011, 14:48

Also check out Amazon's UK and German sites - We have our books listed there as well and the shipping is great 2.99 pounds on the uk and 3,00 euros on the German site. This is where our international customers order from - we're also on Amazon.fr, Amazon.it, Amazon.jp and Amazon.ca. Let me know if you have any questions as I might be able to help you out