Cheaper than media mail?

[enchantment_romance]

Hi there,

I'm going back to book selling to move a bunch of

old paperbacks.  Soon I'll be listing some historical 

romances, fairly common, at $3-$5 plus $3.92

media mail to ship.  As I do  a bit of research, I've

noticed that some of my competitors are selling

the same books offering free shipping. I don't know

how they are selling books for $3 or $4 with free

shipping.  How can they sell at a loss?

For instance, in the books section search out

"Kentucky Bride Hannah Howell" and select

"price + shipping lowest first."   Its work to take pictures,

prepare the listing, then wrap and mail it correctly. 

Why would anyone do that for no money? Thank

you.

best,

Rebecca

[powell-memorabilia]

There is something cheaper than MM - not available to everyone.  Those eligible have to get the items to a USPS DC, and there might be packing and palletizing requirements.

Those selling super cheap on eBay likely use this service.  They get their books for free.  They don’t make much per book - they go for sheer volume and multi item purchases.  

small sellers pricing at crazy levels just don’t understand math, or might just be trying to find a good home for a book.  Nothing wrong with that.

[1786davycrockett]

Several huge warehouse booksellers purchase unsorted lot-loads of unsold books from other book distributors.  These are sold in auction in unsorted cardboard boxes, on skids measuring 48" X 40", generally about five feet high, wrapped in winding sheets of plastic.  

Since the book lots are unsorted and ungraded, the auction price may be only pennies (or less) per book.

And bigger bookselling businesses may no doubt be able to negotiate less expensive USPS Media rates than most booksellers.

Since you have described your inventory as "fairly common," you may have some serious problems competing with warehouse booksellers who can offer the same "fairly common" titles for much less than you.

Perhaps you might consider simply donating them, and taking the tax write-off instead.

[enchantment_romance]

Thanks all. I get it now. I can donate, or sell some of them

with others in a lot. 

best,

Rebacca

[lux-libri]

You can't match their shipping prices, but you can do a few things the mega-sellers can't do: Show pictures of the actual book for sale instead of stock images; Write a good description that describes your book, rather than relying on generic statements of the flaws a book might have; and package better than the flimsy, unpadded mailers the volume sellers use.

There will always be buyers whose only consideration is price, but I'm personally willing to pay more to get more. I would much rather spend a couple of dollars more with a smaller seller who put together a real listing. I have bought reading copies from the megas, but there's no consistency with grading. Sometimes the books are better than described, but they are often worse. And more than once, I've received a completely different book than what I ordered. Overall failure rate: About 50 percent. 

[dreambooks]

This has always been  a myth since the dawn of internet commerce. They were coined as "Penny Sellers" since they sell their books for 1 cent, plus $3.99 shipping and handling some two decades ago, and they made some decent money per order since at that time shipping is cheaper and Amazon is not charging an exorbitant fee. Small sellers cannot compete with them since they negotiated a bulk shipping rate with USPS. They do some sorting of their packages before dumping them to a USPS distribution center though. They used to make 50 cents per book, now they make pennies, but they make money on multiple books per order, and sometimes order of high-priced books too.

[jesne_1604]

That wasn't helpful, but it was insulting.  Turns out, not just nurses eat their own.