booksellers: competition with mega sellers
Pretty often when I am doing price research I will find the lowest price book is from a mega seller with no photo and boiler plate description. There will also be copies with photos somewhat higher in price. Sometimes I use those for determining my price gambling that buyers will reject the mega seller copy(ies). Do you do much the same? I ask because mostly when I want to buy a book I will go for the cheapest no matter if there is a photo or not because I do not care about condition just price.
19 comments
natoman777
·8 months agoSo, I don't sell the books the mega book sellers sell. I don't even see how it is worth their time on some. I personally purchase the cheapest I can find. As far as when I list, I always research sold prices. I don't look at the current prices of listed books very much at all.
There are so many books listed at "grab out of the air" prices by people with dollar signs in their eyes. This includes individuals and mega book sellers. Some are old timer antique sellers who still think you can get antique store book prices on eBay. Some books I see for sale at antique stores I have sold for $10 and they have listed for $30 or more.
ereborbooksnthings
·8 months agoi almost always am okay with paying more for a book if the listings have lots of photos and even a good description. i got burned once a few years ago when i didnt know mega sellers and their cookie cutter descriptions were a thing. if i want a cheap reader copy i either try to source it while im out sourcing for my store or get it on pangobooks.
1786davycrockett
·1 year ago@keziak
Most of the mega sellers do not seem to be concerned with particular editions, which will obviously have an effect upon the selling price. In addition, the mega sellers use a very generalized condition grading, which I find to be hit or miss.
And then there's one particular seller (starts with "z") that I find far too pricey for the condition descriptions depicted in their photos.
Which means skipping any listings which use only stock photos (or NO photos!), and spending a great deal of time studying actual individual photos from non-mega sellers, comparing what I intend to list, with that which is currently listed. If I find a similar listing, I'll check for a detailed condition description -- if the seller has actually bothered to include one. If not -- I move along to the next candidate.
If necessary, I'll check listings on AddAll, as well -- particularly from booksellers who've been in the business for decades.
On the other hand, if I'm just interested in reading the book, I'll check to see if it's available from the library -- I'm attempting to cut back on my own personal book purchases since my son has informed me that he is not interested in my library, with only a few exceptions.
keziak
OP1 year agoI also am a heavy library user except for some self-published apocalypse novels that I've mostly had to buy on the River. I did get 3 or 4 in a lot here. Anyway, since going part time I have been using the library's Interlibrary Loan service. It's free and only requires patience. If the books are on loan from any US library I can borrow them and I do it a lot. The majority are science books which have come from college libraries and one of the larger library systems in the area. The books I had to buy are literally in no libraries! I have a set of them to list on ebay now that I've read them.
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoI'm selling books from our library - actually we have two libraries and are drowning in books, even with me getting my trashy novels on Kindle. I've reached pretty much the end of our second tranche, which was piles of statistics and mathematics books - those sold like crazy. I have some of my own research books, but they're less in demand, so I'm donating a lot, too.
People selling books from their own homes/offices are usually a pretty good bet insofar as quality and condition go.
crittermom89
·1 year agoDoing the same here. We have some really nice titles, particularly in. Ancient Near East studies But our old pleasure reading is pretty extensive as well, and I find that these sell as well, although more slowly.
femmefan1946
·1 year ago@tobaccocardyahoo
I also read most of the books I buy for resale so I don't worry much about how many are out there.
But if Addall tells me there are more than a dozen copies of that edition of that title for sale online, I donate rather than list.
tobaccocardyahoo
·1 year agoOn the rare occasions I buy a used book on an internet marketplaces, I usually buy from a mega, I find the chances of getting an as described book far greater from a mega because their grades are more conservative than hungry small sellers. The exception is from a seller I know.
I do not sell any book which a mega is selling.
femmefan1946
·1 year agoI no longer buy books for resale, but for pricing and descriptions I use Addall, which not only gives me an idea of the number available online, but sometimes additional information like cover artist (SF fans like Kelly Freas covers) or specifics about editions.
m60driver
·1 year agoI sell books and try to avoid selling books listed by the mega sellers at a price below my costs. If the mega seller only has one copy I might try listing at a higher price. The insult to injury is having those higher selling fees imposed upon books. Just yesterday I bought a book that showed, in the field, acceptable pricing using my phone app only to get home to the far trustier desk top only to discover a large number of copies for sale below my costs. The book is going into the recycle bin later today.
main.street.books.plus
·1 year agoI found that going to Bookfinder thru my app onsite helps with that. I'm not sure if all apps have that feature, but it's only one more click and it saves me bringing home duds 100% of the time. I still will bring one or two home now and again, but it's almost always from a hasty post pick scan without that further research.
dhbookds
·1 year agoSeveral things I've noticed with some mega sellers...........often no combined shipping and no "lot" sales.....all individual books... could be ways to compete......
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoThat's easy to understand and the same thing they were doing on Amazon in the penny book days - they make all of their money on shipping. I would get 4 books, they would cost $4 for the lot, but $17-19 for shipping - no combining. The infrastructure and manpower to do something like that is minimal - they're just thrown into a heat wrap machine and sealed into whatever plastic they use and spit out the other end to be labeled and shipped.
And yeah, the condition is kind of wayward for these outfits.
keziak
OP1 year agoGood point though I don't get a ton of combined orders anymore. Some. Not really people shopping my store and selecting various things, more often something similar. I had more when I ran more auctions.
taylor_memorial
·1 year agoyou've been around here as long as I have, so you know the above answers. It's as much a toss-up: your feelings on the particular book as anything else.
I tend to buy a lot from 2nd City (and their affiliates) when I buy commodity books I don't have. I don't go scouting much any more, and never used a scanner.
Recently, I began using "variations" listings to compete head to head with the big boys. This way I can sell a "lot" of books, or a single book, or a number of books from different listings.
The way it works is pretty simple: the "Variations" listing allows the seller to group up to 50 books that meet a single criterion (or more) established by the seller. Lee Child/Reacher 1st HCDJ, Lee Child/Reacher pb.
That can be two listings, it can be one listing, and there are authors in the same action suspense subgenre that can be added like Burke and Box.
So what I do is set the single unit price to cover my-cost+plus shipping (based on current rates)+supplies to set the minimum. Then I use the same discount tier structure for multiple purchases for all these listings.
When a customer puts one in their cart, and chooses to continue shopping, the customer is returned to a store page that contains listings only in that same discount tier structure. Customers are free to choose one from column A, one from column B, and eBay combines the cost, takes the discount and so on.
That's cool.
Right now, this format can only be accessed from a "create listing" > "single listing" pair of commands from the seller hub. It would be nice if they would figure out how to actively change a "lot" to a "variation" listing, and so on.
Does it work? I had a handful of leather Oxford Classics from the 1910s for about 15 years, maybe longer. Sold them all within a month after taking down the individuals and putting up the choice listing. To the same customer. I bought a couple hundred of these series books from a single source for really short money, long since made my profit on that day and paid for the frames I put around some art for my home. I digress.
I have found that I can send an offer to a customer from this format.
So what does this mean? It means strategery is important. Each variation gets a shorter title (think of it as a single listing with 50 subtitles for 50 different titles that are in the same category) so there are more keywords to use. ISBN is a searchable field that can push the listing to the market place.
The strategery involves setting the price--not to sell fast, or be the lowest, but to be the most inviting to multiple sales. Say you have a book that routinely sells for $20-25 and a couple others in the same category. Each price need not be lowest: the discount tier for 4 or more needs to be the most inviting to sell more books. If I ask $40 for four books with a 40% discount and free shipping, I net $24 (before fees). Compare that to 20% off and $16.00 shipping for 4: at an average $5 a title, the 2nd City is netting $32.00 (before fees).
In the Lee Child example, I can use that same listing to add new titles with a lot less work than singly. But I can't "sell mine now" with someone else's listing as a starter. Hope this helps.
keziak
OP1 year agoI've never tried variations; I have a batch of books that would seem good for that approach. Thank you for the information, I should look into it.
squinkercat59
·1 year agoThose mega book sellers usually have horrible feedback also, for damage not disclosed (or shown in a photo), writing in it, water damage, sending the wrong thing, etc. I would rather pay more to a reputable seller that shows the actual book and know I am getting a nice copy, rather than take a chance on getting a piece of trash in the mail.
jonathanbrightlight
·1 year agoI often ignore those types of listings when trying to price books, or at least figure that we can get more by listing our book with good pictures and description. I don't have any solid proof that buyers will tend towards better listings, but it logically makes sense to me that they would be more confident buying from a seller who shows what they're getting instead of the blank placeholder photos that a lot of the mega-sellers use. I personally wouldn't buy anything on eBay that didn't have at least a couple decent photos, but then again I rarely buy anything on eBay in the first place (mostly due to a lack of money to purchase stuff with that isn't essentials).
chevymontecarlo88
·1 year agoI agree and think it is similar with CD listings. When i was selling CD's, i would list many that more expensive than others with no pictures or even with pictures. Sold many without issues. Price is important, but service and condition matters more to buyers at times. (depending on the widget) YMMV
Trying to compete with mega sellers is tough in any category. IMHO