Booksellers: auctioning single books
I'm in a pickle right now because for unknown reasons my Amazon orders have collapsed. On ebay I have mostly auctioned books in lots except for some collectible titles. I am experimenting with offering more single books at auction. Do you know trends for success in this method? I've sold some books this way lately though a high percentage have gone down in flames. I am working on converting some to Fixed Price. I get some sales this way, need more. Since things do sell here I need to shift my focus to ebay listing until Amazon picks up again. I always have tons to list on Amazon but right now it feels like an exercise in futility.
16 comments
onefootflipper
·2 years agokeziak, I think you would sell a lot more books if you just started going through your listings and price checking them against the current market. I just checked a half dozen of yours at random, and in every single case you were way over market.
You seem to have a great sell through though. Are you researching your prices or just guessing them? If that is the case then your store might be filling up with your high guesses while the low guesses are selling quickly.
toomuchstuffagain35
·2 years agoI don't know what it is, but whenever I pick up a book and thing about listing it, the comps show it's not worth it, yet whenever =I= am looking for a particular book, the only prices I can find online are sky high.
Murphy's Law I guess.
keziak
OP2 years agoNo, my primary site (usually!) is Amazon and I double-list (shhh). I skew to Amazon prices which I know is not good here on ebay. It's always been this problem. I just had two high-end sales but neither was on Amazon. Amazon has a dirty habit of de-listing expensive books because of bots saying they are worth far less. I have a lot of books like that I need to get onto ebay.
As for usual sales, it's hard to detect much of a trend. Some go by Best Offer which adjusts prices as long as they aren't really low. Others sell as combined with others, others just sell. But if I made my income goals based on ebay FP sales I wouldn't have much to whine about and that's no fun.
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoI use auctions infrequently but have recently listed a few items which are traditionally sold by booksellers and are not books.
The results have been underwhelming even by today's Ebay standards.
Fortunately, I was not depending on those sales.
A recent drop in online sales would coincide with the recent increase in negative news in press channels of all ilks. And that will affect both Ebay and Amazon.
I do not think that lowering prices will help, and auctions are a way of lowering prices on the modern Ebay.
Listing more has historically been the best way I have gotten out of a slump. Fresh to market inventory seems to sell better. But unless you find some great inventory, trying to buy your way out of a slump is too dangerous and expensive.
I looked at your listings, and I cannot define who the buyer who would want some of your very nice books could be.
If I were to advise on what to look for in your existing inventory which might turn quickly, I would usually recommend books which are paid for with OPM (other people's money). Given the chaos on many campuses, university libraries are not likely to buy the thesis fodder that doctoral students request, and corporations being asked to reimburse work related books. Such titles were in the past immune to external influence.
keziak
OP2 years agoHmm. not sure how to apply this to my books.
luckythewinner
·2 years agoI've sold some books this way lately though a high percentage have gone down in flames.
What does "gone down in flames" mean?
keziak
OP2 years agoJust meant they didn't sell!
lux.ra_14
·2 years agoI follow a bookseller who lists every book as an auction. Seller has about 500 listings at any given time and lists 50 or more books every day with a good sell-through rate. I estimate that 75 percent of their auctions end with bids.
My motivation as a buyer: Seller has some good books but paints with a broad brush. Everything starts at $9.95, regardless of value. Descriptions and pics are only so-so, even though the seller is an ABAA dealer. The practical result is that many of their books end up selling cheap. I've picked up some great stuff at absurdly low prices. Seller also has an open shop, and all of their auctions are one-and-done. If a book doesn't sell in a week, it is never seen again on eBay.
So to answer the original question, the auction model can still work -- but you would have to gain a following by underpricing a lot of good books on a regular basis.
keziak
OP2 years agoInteresting. thanks
jewelbiz
·2 years agoFirst thing…
I never buy or sell Anything by auction ever! Never!
When I want to buy something I want it immediately and could never imagine selling anything by auction either…
Buyitnow immediate payment required is how I sell…and operate!
easy Peasy…
keziak
OP2 years agoYes, I am familiar with the classic auction vs. fixed price arguments. Not really working for my current questioning because FP listings can hang around indefinitely and I'd like some faster sales [a sale that takes a week is still faster than a sale that takes months....years....languishing on watch lists].
I do sell some books at FB but if I make anything like real money here it's from auctions. But I've really skewed hard to lots. I guess all I can do is experiment. I have some large books on Amazon that haven't gone anywhere ($$$) and I am sick of looking at them. Obviously when auctioning one generally gets a lower price than Amazon or BIN but maybe after some point that is the greater part of valor.
brightlightbookseller
·2 years agoMany auctions end without a sale, and then you can quickly use up any free insertions you do have and start being charged just to list an auction, so it's a waste of money for most items. BIN items sell plenty quickly if you price them right and they're in any type of demand. Yes, we have some old items for sale, but a large portion of our inventory sells within less than a month.
keziak
OP2 years agoI will be the first to admit that my prices on ebay skew high. I don't like it but it would be very hard to find the time to reprice them unless I guess I got into a groove of doing a chunk most days. I use Best Offer and that does help. But I do not view my single-title books sales (FP) as a core part of my business. More like an add-on.
brightlightbookseller
·2 years agoWe rarely auction books, only when we're not sure what they'll go for but they're popular enough to get views within the week or so the auction runs. Usually our buyers prefer BIN, with or without offers enabled (we don't enable offers for a few months and try to just sell things at the price we list them at to begin with). Most people are looking to receive their book fast and don't want to wait for an auction to end, but there are a few things we decide are worth it.
dhbookds
·2 years agoYou sure know more about books than I do......my experience has been only relatively rare single books sell well and can take time to sell........ Lot of cozy books......romances/mysteries/horror/adventure sell better in the summer....."beach reads"? Best I can offer.......
m60driver
·2 years agoMost people prefer a BIN listing to an auction. It is easy to find comp prices on books to list competitively and then send offers to entice a buyer. But so many books are now being listed by the big boys who only seek to make a few dollars per book that it is hard to find books that are worth listing. Sometimes I find books with decent value only to look up comp prices later to find that some big seller has gotten ahold of a copy and listing it for under $10 and then I have to wait for that copy to sell before I have much of a chance to sell my copy.