strategies for purging items (in my case books)

[keziak]

I'm  seeing my shelves fill up and more books to go. They date back to from last August and sooner.  My space unfortunately is not great.

Husband suggests dumping anything over 6 months because most books sell when aged in  that period. Occasionally a sale but  not often. The easiest approach would be to purge everything in the older months  but I am also wondering about dropping prices not by X% (I have a sale now for the oldest 200 but so far only watches) but by matching lower conditions for the books

That seems like a lot of work looking at each listing. 

I, myself, buy the lowest price books at any condition and I wonder if most people do the same.

What is your tactic? Brightlight books has talked about this.

[chevymontecarlo88]

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@keziak wrote:

I'm  seeing my shelves fill up and more books to go. They date back to from last August and sooner.  My space unfortunately is not great.

Husband suggests dumping anything over 6 months because most books sell when aged in  that period. Occasionally a sale but  not often. The easiest approach would be to purge everything in the older months  but I am also wondering about dropping prices not by X% (I have a sale now for the oldest 200 but so far only watches) but by matching lower conditions for the books

That seems like a lot of work looking at each listing. 

I, myself, buy the lowest price books at any condition and I wonder if most people do the same.

What is your tactic? Brightlight books has talked about this.

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Spring is here and the weather is perfect (check for rain) for a garage/yard sale. Anything that does not sell (that you don't want) just donate/giveaway. Also look for local flea market events that you might be able to participate in. 

Discounting can only do so much, and the work/time needed may not make sense (profitability) on many titles. YMMV

-Good luck

[simba6]

Flea-markets are a spot venue.  You never know what will sell when.   If your up to years in merchandise that never sells , then you might want to toss the old low value stuff.   Six months is too short a time to know if an item will sell.  After two years I would say it's time to move on and dump it.

I would offer a 50% or more discount to all watchers before tossing them.  Might spur a few sales.

[keziak]

I wish I had the space to give them 2 years. When on Amazon I let a  year. On the plus side a lot of books could get store credit at the used bookstore for buying fresh books. 

I don't consider taking what I might purge to a flea market. 100 books for  now isn't enough. 

I mispoke earlier, I got a whopping 1 order of a sale book. I have the sale up for a month. 

[m60driver]

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@keziak wrote:

I, myself, buy the lowest price books at any condition and I wonder if most people do the same.

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I too sell books but I have become rather discrimination when sourcing books.  These days I always comp any book I that looks promising, even at a vey low cost, because I don't want to bother competing with the mega sellers.  But I understand that many books with promise will be very slow sellers and the inventory can begin to pile up.  When I run out of shelf space I either donate, although many places no longer take in books, or just recycle the paperbacks.

[mam98031]

Couple weeks ago I just donated a bunch of stuff.  

I first try some Markdown sales on the old stuff and sending offers when available.  Then if stuff is still left, I usually donate.

[soh.maryl]

Just ordinary books must be a hard sell on eBay.  In addition to easy access to four local library systems, I have several local thrifts whose books are just 90 cents to a few dollars.  I have bought specific craft books or history books on eBay after first checking them out from the library.  Most of us don't have storage for a lot of books either.  

[toysaver]

"What is your tactic? "

PUT THE ISBN IN THE TITLE.   It gets picked up by other search engines.  I've mentioned this many times and it always get shot down.  Don't knock it unless you've tried it.  

[mam98031]

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@toysaver wrote:

"What is your tactic? "

PUT THE ISBN IN THE TITLE.   It gets picked up by other search engines.  I've mentioned this many times and it always get shot down.  Don't knock it unless you've tried it.  

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@toysaver 

The Ebay search engine automatically searches the titles and the ISBs [item specific boxes], so no need to put it in the title if you have it stated in your ISBs.

[toysaver]

 "It gets picked up by other search engines."

There are bigger search engines for books than eBay.  

[mam98031]

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@toysaver wrote:

 "It gets picked up by other search engines."

There are bigger search engines for books than eBay.  

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I was specifically talking about Ebay's.  I'm sorry if I wasn't clear.