book sellers: competition with mega sellers
When you list and evaluate the competition do you include the megasellers with their no photo and generic description? Do you figure that a lot of people won't buy those? Or maybe they will and one needs to include them in setting a price?
Just curious.
19 comments
tobaccocardyahoo
·8 months agoHow we choose books to list is more complex than than price.
Few items I consider listing online are offered by megas. They haven't been for years, even when my offerings were broader.
When they are offered by megas, they will fail other criteria I use to decide what to list, like number of offers.
Think about where the megas source, they buy remainders, returns and library discards for most of their offerings, All books with a problem selling. They pay virtually nothing per book, have their cost in space and fulfillment and need to keep their people busy. They compete with ebooks and can.
There have been millions of books published, and a small percentage of them can be sold profitably. There is no one who can identify all of the books which can be sold profitably, but many of us know some of them, and know how to find books which can be sold profitably. Others of us know how to successfully gamble by dealing in a good return on a portion of a large number of books, just as the megas do.
The sellers who use their scanners to buy look at what other sellers buy and say who would buy that. But in spite of downward price trends on many or most books, it is still possible to buy and sell books with high price tags and high margins.
What kind of bookseller you are is a function of what you know, how you think, and where you are located. I could never sell any books or anything else which are mass market and require large volumes to make a profit on short margins. I have always had to sell high margin products. Even when I ran marketing in a subsidiary of a major corporation, it was a business with high margins.
jonathanbrightlight
·8 months agoConsider, yes. Always try to beat on price? No. But we’re often listing books that have some appeal beyond the actual title, whether that’s a particular edition, a signed copy, etc, so we don’t usually need to beat them on price, just make the advantage of our listing clearer and searchable. In the rare cases where there is not much difference, we will usually price similarly to them, but having our own photos means that we’re more likely to sell the book, we believe.
squinkercat59
·8 months agoI tend to price my books in line with what the NON mega sellers have them listed for, that is, sellers that have good feedback and books in good or excellent condition. I buy books also, and won't buy from the big sellers only because they have a history of sending out merchandise that is better off in the trash. There are also a lot of people susceptible to mold, mildew, funny smells, cigarette smoke, etc., and won't take a chance on getting something like that. I've even had buyers contact me and asked to be sure that the book they are interested in doesn't stink.
Most of the big sellers have negative feedbacks in the thousands. (I noticed recently that Ebay won't always display the negatives on these sellers, either. One I just checked had two negatives shown, yet only had a 91% feedback with over five million sales. Not going to fall for that.)
luckythewinner
·8 months agoWhen you list and evaluate the competition do you include the megasellers with their no photo and generic description?
I evaluate all competition.
Do you figure that a lot of people won't buy those? Or maybe they will and one needs to include them in setting a price?
I don't need to guess whether people are buying things on eBay, because eBay lets me search sold items.
keziak
OP8 months agoBut if sold history shows that the book you have has been recently sold for chump change by a mega seller do you disregard that or decide not to list because of that.
For me, I usually factor in mega seller prices unless my condition is better. But I wondered what others do.
luckythewinner
·8 months agodo you disregard that
I posted that I evaluate all competition.
That means I do not disregard it.
Sorry if that was not clear.
or decide not to list because of that
Your question seems to assume I employ a "black or white" decision making process based solely on the presence or absence of "mega sellers" in the sold item results.
My evaluation of supply and demand is not that rudimentary or simplistic. The pricing of sold listings is just one factor in trying to estimate supply and demand.
Here are two examples:
If there are 10 active items and 100 sold items, there is a high sell-through rate and I am more likely to list it - and I tend to strike a balance between potential profit and staying competitive.
But if there are 100 active items and 0 sold items, there is a low sell-through rate and I will generally not list it unless I can realize a healthy profit when priced at 50% of the lowest active listing.
And these are just two examples taken from an entire spectrum of supply and demand possibilities.
keziak
OP8 months agogood points, thanks.
1786davycrockett
·8 months ago@keziak
The mega-sellers generally use the 80-character "title" line only for the book title & author's name; but rarely to actually describe the subject of the book itself.
If a potential buyer is unaware of either the title or author of the book, the buyer may be searching for specific subject matter. Booksellers on eBay can use the balance of the unused "title" line (as well as the "Topic" line under "Item Specifics") to enlarge upon the subject matter of the book, and those "keywords" may be the impetus needed for the buyer to purchase THAT book, rather than the same title from a mega-seller.
I've been "tweaking" my "title" lines in that manner for years, and I have often out-sold the mega-sellers on specific titles, simply by putting myself inside the brain of a buyer seeking books on specific subject matter -- perhaps the potential eBay buyer may trust me more than the mega-seller, since I am actually taking the time to provide more key information, beyond title and author, and the mega-sellers are only concerned with pushing inventory.
Try it, and see if your sales receive an upwards bump.
keziak
OP8 months agoGood points. I do some of that, what I need to do is more systematic repricing, evaluating the listings, etc. If I ever had a helper this is probably the number one thing I would have them do. I just have too much else to do to spend that kind of time unfortunately. This month I am (mostly) not scouting in order to spend way more time listing what I have. It's looking like one month will not be enough though. I am still working on single titles and have not for the most part touched the lots.
meme6253
·8 months agoTrying to compete with the Mega sellers is futile, They will constantly out price you!, You seem to be doing pretty good without trying to compete with them, So I would continue doing what you do & forget about them.
lb23cavaliersmvp
·8 months agoI always compare pricing on ebay and at least 3 other high volume sellers before pricing books. Frankly, I ignore pricing from sellers like zuber because of high complaint rates and the fact that I know a number of their items are listed at a highly inflated price and condition is unreliable. That said in my experience accurate condition description and only selling new or like new is critical unless selling very unique titles/editions.
ccomic
·8 months agoRace to the bottom sounds pretty depressing, but fewer and fewer people will be buying physical books every year. On a much longer time frame, existing books will become too fragile for reading and there won’t be much left to sell in 50 years or so.
1786davycrockett
·8 months ago@keziak
Most of the mega-sellers use very limited information in their title lines, and sometimes neglect to enter both first and last names of the authors.
And none of the mega-sellers use the exact photos of the individual books, but either depend upon stock photos, or no photo at all.
The condition descriptions used by the mega-sellers is too condensed, and usually only one or two words, with little or no actual description of the actual book condition, since those sellers sell from a bulk inventory, rather than individual items.
When I am comparing prices and conditions of similar books on eBay, I tend to skip right past the listings for the mega-sellers, since their listings are too limited in detail, and seem to be aimed at individuals who seem to want to just READ the book (in ANY condition), rather than to actually OWN the book, which to many people seems to be an "old-fashioned" concept.
But I'm not trying to compete with the mega-sellers, since most of my book listings are for items which are mostly from 40 years ago (or older), and thus not in competition with the mega-sellers, the inventory of whom is largely from the last 25 or 30 years.
Too much of what the mega-sellers offer is equally available from local libraries, without the wait, and without spending more than gas money.
onefootflipper
·8 months agoOk, here is the dirty media truth, if even one megaseller has that book for sale buy it now at basically shipping cost or less then the book is now worthless to normal sellers forever.
I buy those books all the time, as do many other people. Most book buyers just want to read the darn book and are not condition sensitive or trying to build a collection.
I have researched this extremely heavily for multiple youtube videos and the sold prices of most books hover around or even below the currently cheapest listed price on the website.
You have a really good sell through rate for a book specialist, but I urge you to not ignore ANY listing from any competitor. Books as a category drop in value constantly, and listing $1 too high today on something that would make you a $10 profit now will eventually turn into a book that you cannot sell at all as the prices fall across the board.
slippinjimmy
·8 months agoI inherited a pretty large book collection, almost entirely hardcover non-fiction. Every time I think about trying to sell some I grab a couple and look them up here on eBay.
9 times out of 10 the mega book sellers have them listed for chump change so I ditch that idea.
On the other hand when I put on my buyer hat and look for a book I am interested in, also non-fiction with fairly high cover price, I find them from the mega-sellers for crazy low prices, prices below Media Mail shipping cost and super fast delivery.
There is no sense even attempting to compete with that.
keziak
OP8 months agoIndeed, I am one of those buyers, just want the cheapest copy to read. When I list books in better condition it is a crap shoot if anyone will pay more for a better copy. Or even just a copy where they can see an actual photo of the book.
My bete noir is repricing. Can't figure out how to do it in a reasonable time frame. I've used sales a few times but they don't really move the oldest books. I have weeded out my oldest/cheapest books so right now what I have left are nice-priced except I don't know if the prices are no longer competitive without sending a lot of time checking the competition again.
tobaccocardyahoo
·8 months agoMega sellers usually price lower than other sellers and undergrade slightly.
They can count on getting most of the sales for read and throw away books from the folks who prefer such books on paper rather than kindle.
Pricing to compete with them is usually a waste of time, even if you make the sale.
Price to sell to people who want to read and keep the book. Consider not listing books which no one is likely to want to keep on their shelf. Consider not listing books which are in lower condition unless they are rare and not being offered by megas.
caldreamer
·8 months agoDepends on how fast you need to sell your items. Personally, when I purchase books, I just look for the cheapest price (which is usually the mega sellers). I remember once I got a 500-page cookbook for only $5 (with FREE SHIPPING). Which is crazy, because after selling fees they must only make pennies.
oldwestgold
·8 months agoYes, competition in many forms is always present in any business platform. If you don't make yourself familiar with every aspect of your competition, you will not survive. Selling books must be a tough eBay category to be in. You appear to continue to survive, so that's a good thing. I wish you luck.