There is always a learning curve for any business and eBay and Amazon are no exception. Like most new business owners, I faced teething problems. I worried about situations that I thought were unique to me, spending many hours searching for answers to problems that I thought would jeopardize my business now and in the future. It happens to everyone and not long after we all look back on those days and wonder why we were worrying so much, wasting time looking for answers to problems that weren’t really that important – then! Worry wastes time, causes stress; That’s the worry and stress you don’t need to go through with the advice I’m going to give you now.
Tips to help you start making money on Amazon and eBay
1. I was worried that I knew too little about the kinds of books that would sell for profit on eBay and Amazon. He was especially worried about spending money on items that he would later have trouble selling. Today I know that the best type of books to buy tend to be niche topics, perhaps a bit obscure in content. This is because, in most cases, these types of books will have low print runs and therefore quickly become ‘rare’. This is because many niche titles not only have lower print runs than mass-market books, but are also likely to be retained by their early readers, many of those people being enthusiastic about the particular subject, and that too. it means fewer copies find their way to the secondary market. The secondary market, by the way, is the fancy name for ‘Second Hand’.
What I’m really looking for are contemporary books in good condition, usually with an ISBN number (10 or 13 digit number above the barcode on the back of the book). Nonfiction is always preferred, but I generally look for up-to-date fiction paperbacks in very good condition, as these are my bread and butter sales. In most cases they will only get 1p plus p&p but as I am selling in volume (100+ a week) I pay an average weight with Royal Mail discounted postage rates.
2. As a new Amazon seller, I would advise you not to start buying fiction books or popular fiction, as they tend to sell for little on Amazon and profits will tend to be little or no. When I started at Amazon, I didn’t ‘blindly’ buy books (blind buying is what I mean as buying books without first checking for value on Amazon), unless they were under 50p and non-fiction. If I couldn’t make a worthwhile profit selling the books on Amazon, I would sell them on eBay, very successfully. You will be surprised how many books I have sold at a huge profit, say 8 plus postage even though the same books are listed on Amazon for 1p plus 2.75 postage.
In most cases, buyers don’t buy from one site to another, they don’t compare prices, there may also be more competition for a book on eBay than on Amazon, and therefore higher prices are achieved on the eBay site. auctions. I also find that books signed by the author fetch much higher prices on eBay than on Amazon, so there is another opportunity to buy cheap on Amazon by waiting for higher prices at auction.
3. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, especially in these uncertain economic times. I keep my eBay account running month to month mostly for autographed and rarer titles that usually get more from eBay than Amazon.
4. Although eBay and Amazon have a lot in common, there are significant differences in operating methods that allow sellers to make more money on specific items on one site than on another. There are things you can easily do on one site that you can’t easily do on the other. For example, eBay’s auction site is very different from the way Amazon’s marketplace works with fixed prices. Amazon has no listing fees, so you won’t have to pay out of pocket for items that don’t sell. Amazon only gets paid when a product actually sells. This is excellent news for people who work on a strict budget and I wholeheartedly recommend Amazon to anyone who is laid off or sees their income reduced by the recession.
5. Get your stock in charity shops. In addition to selling books, most charity shops have a host of unusual items that you can buy relatively cheaply for resale. In fact, many cheap products on charity shop shelves are of good quality and perfect for selling on eBay.
6. Reference and study books are very popular on both sites, but on Amazon, copies of older editions can be quite hard to sell for a decent profit due to the sheer number available and the fact that newer editions have superseded them. On eBay, you really need to consider listing fees before uploading something you’re not sure will sell.
7. Study books can be quite heavy and add to shipping costs which reduces profits that cannot be passed on to buyers. This is because Amazon charges buyers a flat 2.75 postage fee for books sent to UK addresses, so it doesn’t have flexibility with shipping costs. To make any kind of profit from your book’s 1p plus 2.75 p&p retail value, your postage costs need to be kept low, something you can’t do with a 1kg study book that costs 4.20 to post.
8. Selling old-edition study books on eBay that aren’t cheap on Amazon. I usually start with a starting price of 2.99 plus a corresponding postage charge (be sure to quote proper postage for heavier books).
9. Use eBay in other ways, for example, for books that are unlikely to sell individually, I package them in lots of 500. I put them up for auction on eBay with a starting price of 9.99 and emphasize that they are for collection only. I usually get 30-50 per batch of work. Okay, it’s not much, but I use the proceeds to buy better stocks and that’s better than throwing them in the recycle bin.
10. Make up batches of smaller jobs with books in similar genres. For example, I often add four Mills and Boon romance paperbacks and regularly get access to 5 or 6 of them. Collectively they are relatively light weight and I have on occasion sold three or four lots to a single buyer. It also works to group titles by the same writer. Authors like Catharine Cookson and Danielle Steele are often hard to make a profit per sale, but can sell well in lots of two or three.
11. Sell books checked out from libraries on eBay. When shipping books, every gram counts, so removing the dust covers makes the books lighter and saves on shipping costs. If I have bags full of library covers, I divide them into sizes and sell them in packs of 10. Buyers buy them for 10 for 5.98 and this is all pure profit, since I’ve already made money from the books.
12. Look for articles with a common theme that can generate very good margins. I look in car trunks and charity shops for items I can put together to increase their novelty value. Here is another profitable trick and it has to do with grouping related articles, but not just books and videos. I also look for puzzles; videos, ties, CDs or DVDs and group them. So, for example, a Titanic video will have a low retail value on its own, but pair it with a puzzle and you may attract a collector of that item who buys because it’s unusual or rare. I have also grouped porcelain ornaments and pictures, paintings, and photographs within the same subject area.
13. Clothes donated to charity shops it ranges from common and cheap to rare and highly valuable and many stores do not differentiate between the two. So you’ll find shirts from Asda’s George range right next to designer Charles Tyrwhitt’s shirts and both priced at £2 each. I buy the designer shirts and easily sell them for three to four times as much, plus shipping and packaging. The same is possible with ties, again, mass market products can hide a designer jewel. You can do this on eBay and Amazon, but always check past sales of similar items before deciding where to list.
14. Try to spot items that look a little different; I often have a bet on cheap items just to see. On one occasion, I had a punt in an old knitting magazine that was worthless, but contained a free sock paper pattern. I was absolutely amazed to make 12.50 plus p&p (to USA) for the sock pattern! Three people were bidding on it as it was a rare item and the price went up.
Finally:
– Use both sites to their strengths and you will surely earn additional income.
– Use any site that fits your main business profile but use the other to generate additional income.
– Keep an eye out for good quality and unusual items in car trunks and local charity shops, the items to look for don’t have to be expensive or ‘rare’ items.
– By all means, place a small bet on cheap items; If you find yourself thinking ‘I wonder’ dip your toe in the water, it’s invaluable for building experience and confidence.