I have recently become a huge fan of selling on Amazon and eBay. In the last couple of months, I have been dedicating quite a lot of time to both sites, but I seem to be falling on my face quite a bit with eBay, and falling in love more and more with Amazon selling.
This is not to say I dislike or have given up on eBay, and I am sure I will have a more to say about selling on that site soon, but it does seem to have a learning curve which is much less forgiving than Amazon’s and making a profit has been much more difficult for me. Selling on Amazon is much easier for me, and the easiest way I have found to make money on Amazon is to sell books.
Books are an extremely easy commodity to get at garage/yard sales, thrift stores, and even wholesale in some cases. Most times, you can even jump start your Amazon business from the “inventory” lying around your house. Any books you happen to have sitting around collecting dust can probably be sold on Amazon. All you need to do is round them up, dust them off, and search for them on Amazon by ISBN or title and find out how much they are selling for.
This means that you don’t have to plop down a large sum of money for inventory, crossing your fingers that it will sell. I started with about $15, and slept like a baby not really caring if my items sold or not. Whereas many people starting a business have to take Ambien nightly just to keep from a nervous breakdown.
When you decide which books are worth it, you can sign up for an Amazon Sellers account (if you haven’t already done so) for free. Listing your inventory is super easy, and so is managing it using Amazon’s seller tools. No need to write the description or worry about an appealing picture, because it is almost always done for you. Using this method, I was able to list 20 items (I included a few CDs and Games for testing) in about an hour and sold 11 books, 2 CDs, and 2 video games for a net profit of $54. You may have many more books, or yours might even be worth more than mine were.
I had already decided to use the $54 dollars towards the purchase of more inventory and hopefully turn over a larger one, but I was totally lost on how to do so. So I took a trip to the local thrift stores. All of them. Then I called around to the local libraries to inquire about book sales and finally picked up a Sunday paper to look for estate sales. After all of this I had…7 more books to sell.
Yup, you read it right. After about three days of searching I’d come up with 7 books worth selling (based on condition, price, and chance of profitability.) Not exactly a promising picture.
Then I happened across a major blowout sale happening at a bookstore not 10 miles away from my place. Art and Crafts books, which I happen to be very interested in on a hobby basis, selling for “as much as 75%” sounded incredibly appealing.
Coming home from the sale, I had 15 new books. I added these and the other 7 to my Amazon seller account, crossed my fingers, and went to bed. About a month month later, I have 6 of those 22 books, and am completely happy with my successes. Since that day, I have also hit up other books sales and begun adding the spoils to my Amazon account. My sales are slowly growing with an average of 6 sales a week so far this month, and I am having quite a bit of fun despite Amazon and the customers’ attempts.
As of now, I do not sell used books. It is probably a really good idea for those who live in larger cities and have access to more high-quality used books, but for a small town girl it is just not profitable after so much time and gas spent. When selling used books, you have to consider the condition of the book and examine it thoroughly. You must think “Would I buy this as a gift for someone? For how much? How much are others buying it for on Amazon?” This can quickly become tiring.
With new books, you normally don’t have to worry about these factors. You only need to worry about how much you might be able to sell it for, how low you can get it for, and what to do with it if it never sells.
When determining how much you can sell it for, don’t just look at the lowest price on Amazon. Look at how many new and used copies are for sale, too. A book that has a low used price of $.99, and new price of $12.99 might be a good bet if there are less than 20 people selling it in both categories. You may be able to sell the item for slightly higher than the lowest price, in hopes that once the lowest priced one is bought, yours will be next in line.
On the flip side, a book that has a low price of $1.99 new and used price of $.01, and has 62 people trying to get rid of it is most likely a waste of time. Most often, mass market books like the latest Stephen King novel will fit in this category unless you can find a rare hardcover version of the same book for a great price. I have done fairly well with hardcover books from Nicholas Sparks and Laurel K Hamilton.
I believe the biggest lesson I have learned thus far in my Amazon business is to sell within a category or genre that I care about. It sounds so simple, but many people get carried away with checking every single book they can find to see if it has a profit margin, buying a whole basement worth of random inventory, and then getting stuck with a few dozen books they don’t care about and eventually having to have a yard sale or donate them. Besides the fact that being passionate about what you sell making your “job” fun and less stressful, it also means that any leftover inventory will make you smile rather than cry.
Finding the books is truly the hardest part of this business model. I strongly suggest that you begin just like me by selling off old books, finding others on sale, and NOT spending the money. with the money you make in the first month or two, begin buying wholesale lots of new or used books and selling that way. This saves trips, time, gas, and money and makes life so much easier!
It is very possible to make a living by selling on Amazon, but it will not happen overnight and does require work. Take a few of these tips, start slowly, and you should be well on your way within about 6 months.
