The 4 types of book you should sell on eBay for bigger profits
As you are aware I tend to sell my products via Amazon, however, from time to time I do use eBay if I think a particular book will bring in more profits by being listed there than it would do on Amazon.
When to sell on Amazon and when to sell on eBay
Books I will tend to auction on eBay include:
- Signed books with no personal dedications
- Very niche books with no or a very low Amazon sales ranking which could mean a dearth of buyers and a long wait to sell via Amazon.
- Older study books that have been superseded, but are still sought after, and are offered for sale on Amazon for too low a value to make a nice profit. (You can ask a higher price and postage charge on eBay making the sale more profitable).
- Books that are not in Amazon’s catalogue (meaning I would have to add it myself), and where the effort of listing on eBay will produce a more profitable result.
For example I recently sold a book on eBay that is available on Amazon for 1p plus P&P – a total of £2.81.
On eBay I received £5 plus £3.25 P&P for it.
The book I sold on eBay was offered at £2.99 at the start of the auction (plus P&P) and – great news! – two buyers made competing bids for it, causing the book to sell for a higher price than I originally bargained for.
Now, I only had one copy of the book, but effectively had two buyers who had both offered a higher price than I originally set for the book. So, I sent the winner of the auction the book I had in my possession. I then took advantage of eBay’s ‘second chance offer’ by sending an email to the second buyer offering them a second copy of the book for the price they had bid.
You may be wondering how I could sell two books when I only had one copy…
Well, I researched the book on Amazon and discovered there were lots of that particular title being offered for a lower price than I had been offered. Thus I knew I could make a profit on my eBay sale due to the low price the book was available for on Amazon.
When the second chance offer was accepted, I ordered the title I wanted on Amazon and had this copy was sent directly from the Amazon seller to my eBay buyer.
Of course I did not want the eBay customer to know that I had paid much less for the copy sent to them than they had paid me for it! So I asked the Amazon seller not to enclose paperwork when they sent the item.
Result two happy customers one happy Amazon seller and a nice little profit for me.
Amazon Sellers’ Discussion Board
Have you considered using the sellers’ discussion board? You can often find out quite useful information and keep up with trends. To access the board you will need to go to your seller account.
You will see the following links on the left hand side of the page:
– ‘Visit our Seller Discussion Boards’
– Seller Connection
– Help for New Seller
Click on Seller Connection, the first time you use it you will need to register: if you do not wish to use your ID name, use your first name. Pose a question and other sellers will usually respond with sound advice.
I do not read the board every day but from time to time I see an interesting proposal or request which I think may be of interest. Give it a try!
What do you think?
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