eBay

firecrest-bookshop-uk · ‎25-11-2013

Don't know if I'm allowed to ask this but I will go ahead.

Does anyone here sell mainly HB used books and also sell on A B E books? I just wondered about other selling platforms besides eBay in terms of number of sales? Mine seem to be falling on eBay.

jimbooks360 · ‎27-11-2013

I sell mainly on Abe, having had a quick look at your listings, you would appear to have the right sort of stock that is suitable for selling on Abe. There is the monthly fee though, so you need to upload your DB at once or very quickly. To make it pay on the early months of trading. Abe's techies are very helpful though. I would think its well worth giving it a go

firecrest-bookshop-uk · ‎27-11-2013

Thank you so much, that is brilliant. For personal reasons........it will probably be after Christmas before can I go with this option but it does appeal (even with the monthly fee and building the business up!)

I also have my own website which I would like to have more time to develop and I have been looking at Biblio as well which looks really good. They like to check you out though so I may not be 'up to scratch.'

Thank you again, I really appreciate your answer. I will definitely go with them as soon as possible I think.

jimbooks360 · ‎28-11-2013

From the 'chat' on Abe it would appear that biblio sales are few and far between and may not be worth the effort.

On Abe depending on your pricing structure they reckon sales are about 1 book per 1000 listed per day, with probably the same on Amazon. Sales have been slower this year however which I think is more to do with the economy than the site.

Abe is very popular among 'serious' book buyers particularly academic institutions, with AZ being popular among the paperback brigade. The other problem with Amazon is that their database is a nightmare and many of their ISBNS do not appear following a simple search for title and author. As you can list books without a monthly fee as a 'standard' seller on AZ I tend to be selective with what I list, mainly those copies i have that appear following a general search for title and author. You have to sell over 40 books a month on AZ before it is worthwhile paying the monthly fee to list.

Finally I really like abe, they are easy to deal with and the seller forum can be not only a very useful source of advice but often a hoot with it.. The only real downside is that it takes 7 days for your weekly sales to clear into your bank. They have their own database HB3 which while fairly basic (and bemoaned by many abe sellers) I find it quite adequate for my purposes. The other thing to remember is that when you sell a book it needs to be marked as sold in HB3 or deleted from your own DB so that when you next upload some books you dont offer it for sale again. Also there is no feedback on Abe which takes an awful lot of pressure off selling!!

I could go on, but if you want to contact me, I list as Andrew James Books on Abe and can be found through a search under the 'bookseller' tab if you have any specific (non technical) questions.

Jim

firecrest-bookshop-uk · ‎28-11-2013

How very kind you are, I am really touched by your response. Very, very useful about Abe, Amazon and Biblio. Sorry, I do not know what or who AZ is? I will google to find out. I have not sold many paperbacks to be honest but if there is a specific site which makes it worthwhile I would be interested.

Thank you very much for all your help, I really do appreciate it.

unwinsbooks · ‎29-11-2013

depending on your pricing structure they reckon sales are about 1 book per 1000 listed per day.

We tried these other sites out, and it was better than that. But still 1 sale for every 30 or 40 on eBay. Great friendly service, but not worth the time or money, so after a trial we closed the account.

Hi Jim

jimbooks360 · ‎29-11-2013

AZ is just short for Amazon.

I agree with Unwins that returns on ebay can be better particularly if you are fairly generous with your pricing, and I am selling third party stock here which the client wants to get rid of. But to be honest I find ebay such a tortuous site to deal with and their attitude to sellers has reached an all time low. I really do resent paying my fees to this site, and if it wasnt so useful wouldn't use it at all.

unwinsbooks · ‎30-11-2013

The original OP question was about numbers of sales for vintage HB books. Here can win hands down, especially with auctions. A 50% sale through rate from auctions might be good. Under 25% may be poor. The other AB site probably gets more trade type buyers, and we found the sales there had much higher average prices. But there a 1% or 2% sale strough rate may be very good. Here a 1% sell through rate might not be viable on a few hundred listings. It depends what books you are selling, prices, quantities, stock costs and overheads, and whether you have the space/time to store hundreds or thousands of stock.

firecrest-bookshop-uk · ‎01-12-2013

I am feeling anti-eBay myself at the moment. They will not stop fiddling and continually changing everything, usually to the detriment of sellers. I find the DSR system illogical.

Thank you Unwinsbooks.......I remember your penny auctions.......must check if you still do them ...wonderful. Thank you for your reply, very useful. I only sell part-time as working elsewhere, but would like to build up my business over the next few years. The way ebay is going that may mean being very selective in what I try and sell here, if anything.

unwinsbooks · ‎03-12-2013

@firecrest-bookshop-uk wrote:
I am feeling anti-eBay myself at the moment. They will not stop fiddling and continually changing everything, usually to the detriment of sellers. I find the DSR system illogical.

Thank you Unwinsbooks.......I remember your penny auctions.......must check if you still do them ...wonderful. Thank you for your reply, very useful. I only sell part-time as working elsewhere, but would like to build up my business over the next few years. The way ebay is going that may mean being very selective in what I try and sell here, if anything.

Compulsory 'free' P&P at the end of 2009 ended our penny auctions. Within six weeks I had to make three typists (who typed up the descriptions) redundant. Two had been with me for several years

Spoiler

. Too many regular buyers left the site, and it didn't work when you sell for a much higher proportion for a penny and then have the pleasure of paying the postage. But they ran well for over 6 years. About 1 in 10 sold for a penny most weeks, but the other 85% to 90% made up for it. I have tried several times since, but you have to be very selective and even then you can end up giving an unviable quantity of stock away. I will give it another go with a selection of a hundred or so books in my annual auction sale over the festive period.

firecrest-bookshop-uk · ‎03-12-2013

That must have been an awful time for you. I seem to remember you posted about that at the time?

I well remember the compulsory p&p starting in books. I took it for granted, probably due to lack of experience with eBay, I would have to comply and took ages changing my listings.The cut-off date came......then went. I seem to remember eBay just gave up on the idea because so many booksellers did not comply. I was quite fed up that I had changed all mine! I was not as aware then, of how eBay continually move the goal posts. I have just left most of my listings with inclusive p&p as I did not have the time or inclination to start changing them all again. I always state Inclusive P&P as it is NOT free as eBay claims. I know the policy made auctions very difficult.

Now, ebay are trying to force sellers again by charging a fee on p&p charges.......I suppose it may stop the few sellers who charge very high postage to avoid fees.

I look forward to your future auctions and hope you do really well. Thanks again to you and J for answering. You are very kind.

ryalto-books · ‎26-12-2013

i no longer sell much at all , having gone full circle , started 13yrs ago on ebay selling my surplus from personal collecting stuff, then buying to sell, but then mainly due to ebay anti small private seller policy have come full circle, still sell a very few on amazon but for sure for me ebay is still the best. The hardest thing now really is I still collect and therefore have a surplus to sell of local (ie Sussex) books and ages ago they did away with the topography selection done in separate counties, these unless someone is searching under the particular town or whatever heading no longer sell at all, buyers simply cannot browse. As ever most of my specialist books never see the books heading at all, theres plenty of other better categories for them and they do sell okay in these. But for a regular book seller I guess ebay has had its day. Pity really it used to be great. Us little guys who started them off are no longer wanted.

unwinsbooks · ‎29-12-2013

ryalto, for collectable topographical books such as that, don't forget to always include 'Sussex' in the header title as a keyword, where the book title has perhaps just the town name without the county name.

ryalto-books · ‎29-12-2013

yes i do always do that, but you just try a search using sussex and then books and see how many it throws up, whereas before anyone interested in sussex books (as indeed i am myself) could just search topography england sussex and there they were

unwinsbooks · ‎31-12-2013

@ryalto-books wrote:
yes i do always do that, but you just try a search using sussex and then books and see how many it throws up, whereas before anyone interested in sussex books (as indeed i am myself) could just search topography england sussex and there they were

Yes, eBay must think we are simply in 'Europe' and do not have a clue about English topography. This has been a problem for some years now.