I have been listing a few books at Amazon -- the ones that don't have ISBNs or listing on half.com. Yesterday I took covershots of a bunch of paperbacks for cataloging. Eventually I will catalog them in my regular place, but I find it is useful to list books through on-line marketplaces so I can get a few sold off and also get a feel for pricing. I mean, for example, how else would I have a clue that a nice copy of Last Come the Children by David Hagberg might be worth something? The trouble with Amazon, though, is that seller listings get taken down after a couple months. I'm sure some of these books, nice as they are, might take longer than that to sell.
---Since the per book shipping charge from Amazon is so high, I have tried to keep my prices low. It is because of the shipping allowance that sellers can offer books at 1¢. In actuality these books cost $4, and the seller makes money on the discrepancy between the shipping allowance and actual cost of shipping. The current crop of books that I am processing are mostly all in superior condition and they happen to be from a vast collection of paperback originals, so I am not trying to match 1¢. But if you should happen to take a gander at my listings and see some things you want, let me know and I will stick with those prices and only charge my cost (plus $1 handling) for USPS media mail (outside the USA will have to be International First Class).
---If you want to see my covershots of these books they will be on my current Catalog Data CD-R that goes out with orders. Or send me a $1 to get one separately.
---Further to the above it looks like I didn't look too closely at Amazon's sales commission policy. It seems that unless a book is priced at more than $2.64 Amazon's commission will eat into the shipping allowance. So people with those 1¢ books aren't making out like bandits after all. I will have to see how it goes before I decide whether to keep my books listed there. A lot of others are already doing it, though. All the books I can list on half I will continue to list there.
After quite a while resting on my more or less laurels (past listings) it's time to get a move on and put up some more listings. My goal is five books every day from now on. This should be achievable, but not according to my past performance.
These books get listed in three places: on Amazon, Biblio, and Half. Books without ISBNs (older books) generally will not be listed on half. My prices might vary between these three places. Amazon and Half tell me competing prices, so I peg mine on them. Thus, if the lowest price for Deadly Percheron is $98 on Amazon, I might peg mine at $95. If it weren't my only copy maybe I'd be more reasonable. In fact, I think my Biblio listing is more reasonable.
Going forward (and possibly backward), links to titles of books will send you to the main Amazon listing. My listing will be somewhere amidst the other maybe 237 listings. This is where my photo of the book can be seen, which will probably be a better one than the one Amazon features. Half doesn't let me attach my own photo—at least I don't think it does. Photos are also at biblio. Lots of older listings still don't have photos. Nor updated prices.
I've been lousy at selling direct via email. Sorry about that, if you've tried me. Listing through the major portals keeps me honest—also prompt and reliable.
links
catalog data folder [outdated—info purposes only]
Posts
