06-21-2021 12:08 PM
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?
06-21-2021 12:34 PM
A search for Books returned over 19,500,000 for sale and 180,000 for auction.
06-21-2021 12:36 PM
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.
06-21-2021 12:39 PM
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.
06-21-2021 12:53 PM
i sold several books past months.
06-22-2021 05:02 AM
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.
06-22-2021 01:03 PM
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.
06-22-2021 01:36 PM
Apology. I use a filter: rare books (which has dropped from 30k to 23k but up to 24k as of this morning).
06-23-2021 01:56 PM
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.
06-23-2021 04:32 PM
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.
06-28-2021 05:36 AM
@jersuniquebooks wrote:Apology. I use a filter: rare books (which has dropped from 30k to 23k but up to 24k as of this morning).
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.
06-28-2021 05:46 AM
Peripheral to the OP:
What percentage of "collectible books" in the US, by total dollar sales, are sold via the following venues:
Obviously "collectible books" includes a wide-range which needs to be further defined.
07-09-2021 07:12 AM
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.
07-13-2021 12:43 PM
@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:
- EBay book sales.
- Online book selling sites, excluding eBay (i.e. Lincoln, the River, etc...).
- Individual online book stores.
- Brick & mortar book stores (i.e. a physical sale where the buyer takes possession in person).
- Book Fairs (i.e. a physical sale where the buyer takes possession in person).
- Traditional "in person" Book Auctions.
Obviously "collectible books" includes a wide-range which needs to be further defined.
For collectible books - without any data in support, I will suggest the following (normal years, pre-Covid):