Selling books on eBay

[jersuniquebooks]

Hello book sellers.

Five years selling books on eBay. First few years were great. April 1, 2018 my sales dropped 80% and remained that way until I removed all listings (500) which took a while but completed a few weeks ago. 

I check eBay book sellers, auctions and noticed the number of book listings decreasing the past year, from 30k to 23k. Book auctions to 1700. 

eBay CS says the 23% drop in listings is due to eBay removing listings that do not meet minimum criteria or are just not permitted. 

I am curious what other book sellers are experiencing?

[tdumonde2014]

A search for Books returned over 19,500,000 for sale and 180,000 for auction.

[alcoforever]

I would take that CS comment with a grain of salt.   If ebay were indeed removing many book listings, I would think this forum would be overrun with complaining book sellers.  But it has not.

I can't speak to your drop in sales but the drop in listings I would attribute to the 2% extra FVF that books incur.  From my own limited experience, books do not do well on ebay, generally selling for way less than a B&M store would get.   With those tight margins, the 2% extra FVF may be just too much.

[2013grotz]

Books listings are going very well on ebay.  Admittedly there's issues with the whole "Item Specifics" mess, but there's no marked drop-off in people trying to sell books on ebay.  Now the topic of making money on selling them is another issue altogether, but that rant's out there for another day.

[hyperrush]

i sold several books past months.

[dreambooks]

I listed more and more, and my sales becomes fewer and fewer.

Back when I started I just needed my bedroom for my inventory. Now I have a warehouse. But still sales is getting worse.

[taylor_memorial]

That's a couple million more than 20 years ago. 

Right now, there is a seasonal slump in sales which--for me--has kind of ended. It will stay spotty until the back to school season.  Yesterday I shipped 8 items, today just one with  nothing yet sold to ship tomorrow. Midweek also is a historic low point in sales. 

The more you know how to list what you have the better things will get--there is no money to be had trying to compete with Thriftbooks for reading copies of a book you bought for half a buck in a yard sale. 

There is money to be made buying 4 of those books for a buck and selling them for $12-14 with free shipping because you still beat Thriftbooks price. 

[jersuniquebooks]

Apology. I use a filter: rare books (which has dropped from 30k to 23k but up to 24k as of this morning).

[socrates349]

A rare book is an edition that shows up for sale every few years. I'd doubt that there are 23K such books listed on ebay.

[bugler1998]

Most of my book inventory is books that have very few listings online.

These include:

local history, such as town histories

High School Yearbooks (I just listed a 1941 Iowa Small Town Yearbook with 19 students in grades 9-12)

Books about collecting niches such as guns and sports teams.

If any of these has a print  run of over 1000 I would be surprised.

Since last summer instead of getting 500 listings per month for my $20.00 store, I now get over 10,000 listings for $21.00 if I use the right categories.  That allows me to list most every book I have knowing it could be years until a customer comes along.

Sales have done well in the last year.

[picture*books]

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@jersuniquebooks wrote:

Apology. I use a filter: rare books (which has dropped from 30k to 23k but up to 24k as of this morning).

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As I have experienced (and expounded upon on this forum) for the past two decades, eBay is a very good place to buy first edition and collectible books at below 'market' prices.

Although maybe not so good a place to sell them.

[picture*books]

Peripheral to the OP:

What percentage of "collectible books" in the US, by total dollar sales, are sold via the following venues: 

1. EBay book sales.
2. Online book selling sites, excluding eBay (i.e. Lincoln, the River, etc...).
3. Individual online book stores.
4. Brick & mortar book stores (i.e. a physical sale where the buyer takes possession in person).
5. Book Fairs (i.e. a physical sale where the buyer takes possession in person).
6. Traditional "in person" Book Auctions.

Obviously "collectible books" includes a wide-range which needs to be further defined.

[zenlama]

Been selling here since 2003. It was a great place to sell. But I guess they have to keep pleasing their stockholders if they want to keep those very, very cushy positions. It has steadily gotten worse over time. I have now stopped International sales because I refuse to have that large a cut from my sales. Also, eBay loves making special deals with big corporate sellers at the expense of small sellers. Ever notice when listing a great book there are no checkboxes for 1st Edition, Dust Jacket, hard Cover, etc.  This may seem random, but guess who has gets an advantage there. I won't mention the Wharehouse Discounters, who use 3rd party shipping and usually get their books for free. I think this trip is coming to an end.

[picture*books]

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@picture*books wrote:

Peripheral to the OP:

What percentage of "collectible books" in the US, by total dollar sales, are sold via the following venues: 

1. EBay book sales.
2. Online book selling sites, excluding eBay (i.e. Lincoln, the River, etc...).
3. Individual online book stores.
4. Brick & mortar book stores (i.e. a physical sale where the buyer takes possession in person).
5. Book Fairs (i.e. a physical sale where the buyer takes possession in person).
6. Traditional "in person" Book Auctions.

Obviously "collectible books" includes a wide-range which needs to be further defined.

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For collectible books - without any data in support, I will suggest the following (normal years, pre-Covid):

1. 15% EBay book sales.
2. 30% Online book selling sites, excluding eBay.
3. 05% Individual online book stores.
4. 20% Brick & mortar book stores.
5. 20% Book Fairs.
6. 10% Traditional "in person" Book Auctions.