posted on April 30, 2005 08:47:14 PM new
Calling all bookies!
I have hundreds of books here, ready to sell. Half.com ain't so great these days. Ebay is so-so. I've just looked at Amazon Marketplace (not ready for ZShops).
The books I have are anywhere from 2 years old to 150 years old. I just checked a few random titles on my stack, none of which have ISBN numbers (but do have ASIN numbers, which are what exactly????, which I find when I type in the book title). Some very old books are in Amazon's catalog with an ASIN number; some are not.
Is it hit or miss, whether Amazon has an old book listed or not? I suppose I could try with a few books and see how I like it, and try to sell the older ones on Ebay.
posted on April 30, 2005 10:06:24 PM new
It is low risk as you don't pay anything if they don't sell. Amazon takes a pretty big cut though
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If you build it, he will come........
[ edited by captian23 on Apr 30, 2005 10:08 PM ]
posted on May 1, 2005 05:45:17 AM new
ASIN is the Amazon Serial Index Number.
If it has one of these and is AN EXACT MATCH in the description, you're all set. If you have a differing edition or something else which differs from the exact description, you're just asking for bad feedback eventually.
It's been a while since I looked at their fees, but it used work like this:
Amazon takes $1.99 + 15% if you are not a Pro-Merchant
or
$39.99 per month +15% FVF for Marketplace sales or 5% FVF for zShop sales.
If you have large numbers of books, you are probably better of trying the Pro Merchant option for a couple of months.
If they don't have the book listed in Marketplace, you can always list it in the zShop, although sales are slower that way.
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Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum sonatur.
posted on May 1, 2005 06:03:42 AM new
replay,
the transaction fee is 99 cents,not 1.99 dollars.
that 15% cut is quite steep,many sellers dont realise it until the book is sold that they make no profit or little profit after that 15% cut.
If you cant fine the ISBN or ASIN number on AMZN,you can always contact them and see if they will add it for you.
Sales is slow on AMZN as well,too many sellers chasing after too few buyers.
They would have to stop sellers from listing their books for a penny.
150 books is not a lot of books,you may not recoup the promerchant account fee of 39.99 per month.
But then with a promerchant account,you can set up a zshop and put your non book items in the shop and may get a few sales around xmas (may be??)
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Eat grass,kick ass,never go belly up!
[ edited by stopwhining on May 1, 2005 06:04 AM ]
posted on May 1, 2005 07:56:12 AM new
Thanks, everybody. I was fully aware of the cut Amazon takes. It just looks as though it would be easier to do the actual listing on Amazon, rather than taking the photos, using a template for an attractive auction, etc. etc. etc.
I actually have "hundreds," rather than 150 books ready to fly off my shelves! Closer to thousands. I'm just not ready to go big-time with one of the book sites.
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