How to make money selling used books online guide

There are pro's and con's to selling books online:

Pros: East to find books, easy to research, easy to ship

Cons; Take up space, don't always sell fast, tons of competition

So what re your options and where do you start:

Either you sell on Ebay, Amazon or a site devoted to books.

Ebay: Customers have better search terms, large customer base, ability to list pictures and detailed description, Auction style and fixed price, higher listing fees with lower commision fees than book sites or Amazon. You set shipping price. Paypal used mostly ( which I hate)

Amazon: Large customer base, very easy listing format, only pay if you sell, higher commision fees, more competition on some items, fixed price, fixed shipping price can hurt you sometimes. Amazon pays you directly. Amazon will kick you off very easily. Limited listing options if you are not a Premuim member.

Book sites such as ABEbooks, Biblio: Require spreadsheet listing or inventory software, fixed price, heavy competition on some items, cater to more difficult books to find.

If you are just starting out, Ebay or Amazon will be fine. It seems that people put more stock in thefeedback ratings on Ebay than they do at Amazon. In my opinion Ebay is better for quick sales where Amazon is where you will want to store items that may appeal to fewer people. You can not see previous sales in Amazon as you can in Ebay so check Ebay first to see if an item like yours has sold recently. Check Amazon to get an idea of what others are asking for the book. If your bok has sold on Ebay before, list it there. If it hasn't and is a subject that may be command a limited audience put it on Amazon until you get more familiar with the process. See my blog on how to list on Ebay.

I bought most of my books at auctions. There are many ways to find books to sell:

Auctions: Check out AuctionZip.com to find auctions near you

Yard sales: Your newspaper, local signs and craigslist are great places to find yard sales but it is a total crapshoot

Book sales: look for book sales at local librarys or churches. See here for a book sale finder

Just because it is old doesn't mean it is worth a lot. Even is it says first edition it may not truely be a first edition.

• Don't bother with book club editions unless it is a very rare book
• visit the different book sites and learn the terms used to describe books.
• Don't ever try to sell anything that is moldy.
• If a book has any water damage don't pay too much for it because you won't get too much for it.

Try to research everything, even books you don't think are worth anything. At the local auctions there may be 4 or 5 book dealers and we all seem to find a diamond in the rough so don't overlook anything until you build a good understanding of what is trash and what will sell.

I managed to find a paper supply company that had about 1000 misprinted large sturdy envelopes. Padded envelopes can get expensive. Book people are an odd bunch so you want to be sure the package appears sturdy because even if the book arrives safely, they will bitch about the packaging. Pizza boxes are great to use because they are large but shallow, sturdy and inexpensive. I wrap books in bubble wrap then tape them securely into the box and make a tape ball with the sticky side up to put on top of the book to pad from the top of the box. If you use envelopes you can also rip off the hard covers from books that won't sell and use them to secure other books or soft covers.

The post office offers Media Mail which is a discounted rate for books, records ect. You can mail almost any single normal sized book in the Us for about $4. even a box of books weighing 40lbs will only cost 20$ max.

I mostly sold older books printed before 1975. This was because some people come to auctions or book sales armed with a scanner that enables them to see how much a book is selling for on Amazon. This gave the an advantage with the newer books that had a barcode but left them in the dark when it came to older books. I carried an old price guide from 1980. The advantage of an older price guide is that it had more entries than a newer one by simply cutting out the last 28 years. If a book was worth money in 1980 most likely it still has value. If you plan on buying newer books I would invest in a Pda scanner or get a program that works with a cell phone such as Bookscout. In any case you should carry some kind of reference with you anywhere you go.

You can make money on books but remember you make your money when you buy, not when you sell!