Tips for a New Bookseller

[samaleksart]

Hi everyone,

I recently decided to start selling books as a way to make some money on the side. I realize that the book market is not as lucrative as it used to be, but most of the books I have to sell I get for free, so the initial cost is basically nothing. I currently have a mix of different books and lots, my total listings have gone up to 66 and so far I have sold 8 books/lots. I feel like this is pretty good considering that I've only been in business for about 20 days. However, I want to do all I can to improve my listings and maximize sales. My goal is to get at least 1 sale per day. I was wondering if anyone can offer some advice.

Thank you.

[adkhighker]

Something you can do is to study some of the major book sellers on ebay and "watch" how they do it by researching their listings, especially the sellers who are selling a high percentage of their listings. It will take you hours, but it should be fun for you and highly worth it because you'll pick up some good ideas from the experts. 

[penguins_dont_fly]

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@adkhighker wrote:

Something you can do is to study some of the major book sellers on ebay and "watch" how they do it by researching their listings, especially the sellers who are selling a high percentage of their listings. It will take you hours, but it should be fun for you and highly worth it because you'll pick up some good ideas from the experts. 

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I would amend this to say ... do NOT emulate the mega-sellers with millions of listings. There are some truly awful listings with bad practices in their catalogues. Just because they move a lot of product does not mean that they are moving good product with good service.

Emulate the large independent sellers with good feedback 🙂

Watch your categories when you list. There are issues with the eBay catalogue putting stuff in the wrong category (mostly because of those mega sellers just dumping things Willy-nilly into any category)

[duncanvr · Accepted solution]

Build your store to 200-250 BIN items and keep it at that level. List at various times of the day. Reduce by 5 cents items with watches, this should send them an alert 'price lowered'. Run daily auction starting some cheap and some at better prices. Make your pictures stand out from your competitors. Make sure your sales covers the cost of running your eBay business.  Start a pinterest board and send eBay links to it using the Pinterest icon at the top of your listings page. Try to get a Pinterest following to further advertise your eBay listings.

[samaleksart]

This is excellent advice. I will try and do all of that. Hopefully it will drive more traffic. Thank you very much!

[juststuffisell]

Grade properly. Book buyers can be very persnickety and if you say it is VG or better, make sure it is. Diversity of titles as well. Figure out what authors are selling and sell them. No point in buying inventory that is not going to sell for a long time where books are concerned unless you get them in a grouping/purchase in bulk for cheap. Only books I have purchased I bought for specific authors & series. The rest get listed, but I make my money on the books I purchased and the rest are just bonus dollars. The existing lot I have been selling cost me in total 75 bucks. 15 Boxes of books and I threw about 1/3 of them out due to condition or not worth the time to list. I still ended up with what - 200 plus books some author signed.

Condition really is important. Try to get shipping if you can, but most mass book sellers offer free shipping. I only offer it if you spend/buy X number of dollars otherwise it is not worth my time to mess with it. Buy the right series, author, edition and condition (at the right price) and you can charge for shipping and people will pay it.


Hope this helps.


Cheers

[duncanvr]

Change your listing pictures to all have white back grounds, get a good camera and lighting system to take pictures. Make sure your source of books doesn't run dry have another source when things pick up you'll need it. Its good to have back stock so you don't run out. Put your eBay customers first. Good packaging helps. Include stickers. please leave 5 star feedback, follow my eBay shop. You can find such stickers on eBay. Let your customer know via messages when you actually ship their book. Reaching out to buyers can result in repeat buys. Make sure faults with books are shown in the images and listed in the description to cover yourself. 

[no_zero369]

@samaleksart

How can you sell a book for $1.99 OBO with free shipping AND FREE RETURNS?????  Lowest tracked media rate is more than that (2.66).  Or are you planning on shipping with no tracking and baiting an INR case?  Some books are not worth selling and should be burned or tossed in recycle bin.

Also see that you have many books for sale for ~$4.  I have no idea how anyone makes a dime on that price when all costs are figured in.

Are you calculating costs UP FRONT?

• cost of shipping?
• cost of packaging materials?
• eBay Final Value Fees?
• PayPal Fees or CC fees
• some value for your labor?

While eBay strongly "suggests" you offer free returns, you might want to hold off on that until you have more experience.  You have a book listed for $3.50 OBO.  Up until later this month, the lowest Media Mail rate ( tracked) is $2.66, with ebay fees at 42-cents (12%) that leaves you 42-cents to pay for PP fees & packaging materials and what is left over is for your labor.   Are you OK working for less than 42-cents per hour?  BUT Wait!  What happens when the buyer exercises your "Free Returns" on that $3.50 book?  Now you have to pay $2.66 to have it returned to you and you are in the hole!

Maybe you will be lucky and it will all work out?

[samaleksart]

I’m aware of the costs and the shipping. The cheap books are meant to increase my visibility and drive volume. I’m willing to lose a dollar or two if it means making the sale and potentially getting more positive feedback.

I should point out that I do have experience in selling through eCommerce. I’ve learned that developing a good reputation, having solid ratings, and having a lot of listings is the best thing to do early on. So, I’m more concerned with that at the moment than making money.

Books are just a new thing for me, but I figure some things hold true for everything you sell.

[no_zero369]

Well sorry to see that response.

Hate to be hash, but "help" was asked for...... It is views that do not understand the market that fuel the race to the bottom of the barrel for other sellers and yourself.  So you sell a few "beat up & cheap" books?  In my experience those buyers are NOT the ones who spend any extra time leaving feedback.  Nor do they care how something is packaged nor customer service and as such are only buying on price, thus no "reputation" to be built nor no buyer loyalty.

So somethings are the same, such as doing market research before diving into a new market.  Sure appears as though one "assumes" everything will be the same without actually doing the research?  The book category is over saturated and thus different.

So if one isn't getting any benefit and in fact playing into the ebay's push to the bottom, especially with books, then why bother?  But as one conditions the market to expect cheap books, how is one going to fair when they stop posting loss leaders?  Is that where one wants to "compete"?  At price alone?

Look, your competition in this book space are a bunch of Mega sellers.  Mega sellers are immune from eBay rules: they do not need to post pictures of what they sell (just stock photos), they do not need to provide accurate descriptions, they force garbage on the catalog that hurts sellers because the info is often in accurate creating invalid buyer expectations and being a built in SNAD.  Oh and don't forget they buy books by the truck load or get them for free so relatively zero cost to acquire.  Then with the volume they ship, I am sure they have much better negotiated shipping rates than anyone imagines.  Plus as BIG sellers on eBay, have stores which give them discounts in fees paid - do you realize there is a FVF cap on most stores?  Sell over the cap and there is no eBay selling cost, just a 2.9% PP fee!  So if one is doing 200,000 transactions a month one can afford to net 75-cents per item.  How long are you willing to work for 75-cents per?

So you are an experienced seller and you want to 1) condition buyers that you offer a "cheap" product and 2) take on the Mega booksellers in a game of let's see who can sell the cheapest?  Good luck with that!  I'm just saying.

[samaleksart]

You make a fair point and I appreciate your input. I didn’t mean to come off as arrogant or combative, I am genuinely interested in getting some constructive advice.

[no_zero369]

@samaleksart

Just reviewed this thread and it looks like I was a bit harsh in my comments which could have and should have been stated in a nicer way.  My apologizes.

Good luck selling!

[samaleksart]

@no_zero369

No worries, I appreciate your honesty and the apology.

I thought about what you said and you were right. I decided to remove my cheap items and price things a bit more appropriately.

Best of luck to you as well!

[gracieallen01]

I looked at one of your books that you have mentioned, in the write-up, as in excellent condition.

Sorry, but it is far from it.  You REALLY need to work on your grading!  The pages, the boards, the corners and edges, and for paperbacks, the gutter and spine creasing - they all count, or count off.  If you want to sell books and make a little money doing so, you need condition that is very good or better - unless it is something like a 1st of, say, 'Atlas Shrugged'.  Not just the book, either.  The dust jacket matters as much, and occasionally more.  Without a dust jacket, you will seldom get out of the low end range.  I won't even go into printing or edition.

It isn't a matter of going into a thrift and saying, 'Ooooo, that sounds like an interesting book'.  Being an English Major and  successfully selling books are worlds apart.

[no_zero369]

@gracieallen01

Excellent point!  I can't tell you how many times I have ordered a book from the Megasellers and been disappointed.  They use canned descriptions which miss obvious flaws.  Like a description that says the book has minor markings inside only to arrive with underling & highlighting on 30-40% of the pages.  I have had to request refunds almost every time. [now I no longer buy from them]

An (unscrupulous?) buyer could easily get free books using the SNAD and poor descriptions as that is an eBay policy violation.

If one Googles book grading there are any number of methods and criteria for measuring the condition of a book.