My husband has boxes of new books he got that he wants me to list online....he suggested Amazon. Goodness knows I have enough homeschooling books for sale that I could post on Amazon too. I was looking at the site and it looks like they charge .99 for each item sold (I'm looking at the individual selling plan, not the professional) "plus other selling fees". What/how much are the "other selling fees"? How do you get paid (since Amazon doesn't do PayPal)? Is it a hassel to get set up? I'd like to do this, but I'm worried the fees will be too high (which is kinda why I haven't sold on eBay in quite awhile...but I may have to start again). ETA: Hmmm....another option might be half.com. Has anyone sold there?
I've sold my good condition items on amazon for a while. I am not even sure what the fees are anymore! I should probably be more informed. I list an item only if it has 10 or less used one listed - otherwise, it's not likely to be bought, unfortunately. And usually only if I can charge $2 or $3 or more. A lot of times, large volume book sellers are on amazon and put used items on for a .01. Basically, Amazon covers shipping - they charge the buyer $3.99 when a person purchases your used book. Then they give you a credit to cover shipping (not always $3.99 to YOU, but sometimes....they base on weight of the item and cost on media rate shipping). Often I've found I have a gem and get to sell something for a lot! Sometimes, I'm just happy to get rid of it! You can actually now print postage paid shipping labels through them....but I have not tried that yet....so I'm not sure how it works. I've found anything that is not worth listing on amazon is usually snagged up at Paperback Swap.
The fees have just gone up a whole lot. If the book will sell for less than $10 it isn't really worth it. I have just started listing on half.com again. Homeschool stuff I often sell on homeschoolclassifieds.com. I also go to our local used book store and sell books there when they won't bring in much money. If the book is a paperback in nice condition but I know it won't fetch a lot of money, then I list is at Paperbackbookswap.com. Once someone asks for a book you have, you send it to them (you pay postage) and then you get a credit to select a book that someone sends you. I just used it to get a book to take on vacation. I also sometimes find homeschool books there.
Thank you both for commenting. I'm still looking into what I'll do. It looks like half.com charges 15%...still not sure what Amazon charges. The thing is...for dh's books I can't sell at homeschoolclassifieds.
I sell on Amazon. Their fees are higher than half.com or ebay, but their sell through rate is huge. I used to sell on Amazon and half.com, but hardly ever sold on half.com, so now I just sell on Amazon. Fees are about 12% (I think), but if your book has an ISBN, it's easy to list. When you sell you enter the weight (you will need a postal scale) and then can print a postal label on your printer, and leave the parcel for the mailman. I gave my bank details to Amazon, and they pay me directly. I think you can be paid by check, if you don't want to give your bank details to Amazon, or set up another account where you can just transfer the money into your regular bank account. I don't list books under $4.99 as it's not worth the effort to wrap and mail. You can only list single books on Amazon, for homeschooling books where there is a student book and a teacher's guide, I use ebay. Listing on ebay takes longer. ebay fees are 10% is you don't have a store, and 9% if you do. If you sell over 40 books a month it will pay you to become a pro merchant, then they waive that 99c fee. Pro merchants can also create listing. You will need a good supply of various sized boxes. I get mine from freecycle, or buy them from uline. If a book can't be listed for over $4.99, I list it on paperbackswap.com. You need to decide on a figure beneath which you won't sell. Someone above mentioned $10. Today I sold a book on Amazon for $11.50, the customer paid shipping and Amazon took away fees and gave me $11.42. It cost me $3.25 to ship, leaving me with a profit of $8.17. You can work out the percentages if you like. Amazon give you $3.99 to ship a book, so be careful if it's a heavy book, you still only get $3.99. You can sell non books too if they have a UPC code, but Amazon doesn't give you enough for shipping, so the minimum you decide to list non books has to be higher. For me that's $10. Often they will give you $4.99 to ship something and it costs $10 to ship.
IF they still have them, buy a shop account for a month. I used to pay about 40 dollars a month, it allows you to keep stuff listed for more than 2 weeks at a time and you don't pay the individual 1.00 fee on each book. Preview the overall worth of the books then decide. YOu can still make money on items that sell for like 6 dollars and up, even selling one at a time. It only takes a couple of minutes to pack and ship a book. For paper backs, I used to use a single square of rolled bubble rap from office depot. I bought it by the box. I would then place the book in a brown envelope, the medium sized ones that are like 9x12. I would fold the extra over, use shipping tape and put the lable on with shipping tape. I had preprinted return lables and used to just cut the to address off of the sold ship now email I got from amazon.com
