Selling used book online- A Losing Proposition?!

On 5 Aug 2003 19:29:55 -0700, (Stacy Chung)
declared:

hi,

i did a little reseach on the sellers on half.com and found that on
average it takes an inventory of approximately 1700 books to sell just
one book a day. Considering an average profit of $3 per book, one
would have to sell 45 books a day to make a living ($4000/month)
selling books on half.com. That would mean an inventory of 76,500
books, enough to fill a decent-sized warehouse. Has anyone here tried
to make a living selling used books online, and if so, what do you
think of my calculations?


one of the many reasons i don't sell on half.com. anyone who sells a
book online for $3 isn't doing it for a living.

robert
(who does manage to pay the bills every month solely through online
booksales)


robert

"I've been long, a long way from here
Put on a poncho, played for mosquitos,
And drank til I was thirsty again
We went searching through thrift store jungles
Found Geronimo's rifle, Marilyn's shampoo
And Benny Goodman's corset and pen"

"Stacy Chung" wrote in message
om...
hi,

i did a little reseach on the sellers on half.com and found that on
average it takes an inventory of approximately 1700 books to sell just
one book a day. Considering an average profit of $3 per book, one
would have to sell 45 books a day to make a living ($4000/month)
selling books on half.com. That would mean an inventory of 76,500
books, enough to fill a decent-sized warehouse. Has anyone here tried
to make a living selling used books online, and if so, what do you
think of my calculations?


What I found hard to believe about half.com was the shipping allowance. For
a single hardcover book, they allow $2.33. Since a package between 1 and 2
pounds -- sent media mail with delivery confirmation -- would cost $2.39,
the seller would already be in negative numbers for the shipping expense
without allowing anything for the cost of packaging. No wonder half.com has
the reputation it does. Who could afford to sell there and still eat?

Alice

On Tue, 05 Aug 2003 23:11:24 -0700, Brian
declared:

As for the 1700 books to sell one a day, that is if you stock
and prices are average. If you have good stock (for the half.com
market) and always price as the lowest, your sales will be much
better. [same as on any other database. You have to avoid titles
that are too common or you will be competing with listings at
less than a dollar.

"good stock for half.com"

*snort* no such thing as good "dollar" stock.


The strategy of sellers is often not what you expect.
I bought books from someone selling lots of paperbacks
at one to two dollars. (and low shipping) It was
someone who worked from home and considered the sales
as extra income - they did not put any value on their
own time because they were home anyway.

sheesh! don't they realize they could be reading as opposed to losing
money and time.


robert

"I've been long, a long way from here
Put on a poncho, played for mosquitos,
And drank til I was thirsty again
We went searching through thrift store jungles
Found Geronimo's rifle, Marilyn's shampoo
And Benny Goodman's corset and pen"

Brian wrote:

On the other end of the spectrum:
I saw one seller on Abebooks that priced lots of common
paperbacks at twenty dollars each. I browsed
the listings and found a few thousand listings all at the same
price - instead of doing any research, the dealer listed everything
at twenty and (I assume) figured that the valuable ones would sell.
I never checked back, but I guess that every 3 or 6 months the
whole stock dropped in price. [I looked up the address and it
was a professional building with lawyers as tenents.]

I would never want to buy a book from such sellers, much less associate
myself with such sellers. Excessively overpricing everything (hoping) to
make profits on the occasional suckers is bad enough, but not even having
enough of an interest in your ware to do minimal research and description is
even worse. These people don't deserve to be called booksellers.


--
Ht

|Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore
never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
--John Donne, "Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions"|

On Wed, 6 Aug 2003 02:29:55 UTC, (Stacy Chung)
wrote:

hi,

i did a little reseach on the sellers on half.com and found that on
average it takes an inventory of approximately 1700 books to sell just
one book a day. Considering an average profit of $3 per book, one
would have to sell 45 books a day to make a living ($4000/month)
selling books on half.com. That would mean an inventory of 76,500
books, enough to fill a decent-sized warehouse. Has anyone here tried
to make a living selling used books online, and if so, what do you
think of my calculations?

I think you're selling the wrong books.

--
Mark Heaely
marknews(at)healeyonline(dot)com

On Wed, 6 Aug 2003 02:29:55 UTC, (Stacy Chung)
wrote:
...one
would have to sell 45 books a day to make a living ($4000/month)
selling books on half.com. That would mean an inventory of 76,500
books...

I think your numbers are comparable to those of a typical used
bookstore.

My mail address is jsachs177 at earthlink dot net.

In article , my-wings wrote:

What I found hard to believe about half.com was the shipping allowance. For
a single hardcover book, they allow $2.33. Since a package between 1 and 2
pounds -- sent media mail with delivery confirmation -- would cost $2.39,
the seller would already be in negative numbers for the shipping expense
without allowing anything for the cost of packaging.

Explain again why you want to waste the time and money on
delivery confirmation for cheap books.

--
Jonathan Grobe Books
Browse our inventory of thousands of used books at:
http://www.grobebooks.com

Htn963 wrote:
"my-wings" wrote:
Since a package between 1 and 2
pounds -- sent media mail with delivery confirmation -- would cost $2.39,

Without delivery confirmation, it's $1.84. I make no comment on its
necessity.

Using the USPS Shipping Assistant, MM w/ DC would be $1.97.

= Eric

"Wildwood" wrote in message
...
Finally... (Jonathan Grobe) has come back to
rec.collecting.books...

In article ,
my-wings wrote:

What I found hard to believe about half.com was the shipping allowance.
For
a single hardcover book, they allow $2.33. Since a package between 1 and
2
pounds -- sent media mail with delivery confirmation -- would cost
$2.39,
the seller would already be in negative numbers for the shipping expense
without allowing anything for the cost of packaging.

Explain again why you want to waste the time and money on
delivery confirmation for cheap books.

To cut down on the time wasted by newbie buyers who purchase those
low-priced books.

Instead of answering an e-mail or 2 (or more) each day whose entire
body consists of: "wheres my book i paid for it 2 days ago and its not
here yet and have you mailed it yet and you better not be ripping me
off" (that is a direct quote from a buyer of mine in the past).

If you use the electronic Delivery Confirmation option offered by the
USPS (at $0.13 instead of $0.55 for media mail or free instead of
$0.45 for priority), you have the option when you generate the eDC and
print the mailing label of e-mailing the eDC # to the buyer.

How/Where can you use the eDC for media mail? Please provide a link. I found
the one for the express and priority, but not for media mail.

Thanks,
Rich


Referring the newbie buyer to the eDC # (and link to track it on
USPS.com) after the first e-mail cuts down on wasted time on a
transaction that you've probably already lost enough money on already.

Bill
--
By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually
get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.

Robert Frost

"Jonathan Grobe" wrote in message
...
In article ,
my-wings wrote:


Explain again why you want to waste the time and money on
delivery confirmation for cheap books.


Actually, Wildwood explained it pretty well in his post. It's not so much
monetary as it is psychological. I send an email the day I ship with the
delivery confirmation number and a link to the USPS site. The buyer (I
believe) is comforted that their book is really on the way, and they hit the
USPS site instead of sending me emails when the book doesn't arrive
immediately. It is also some slight protection against being told the book
never arrived. (Since I don't buy insurance on cheap books but I expect to
make any losses good, it's a comfort to me too to know that I can get some
information on the package's travels.)

The only "where's my book" question I ever got since I started using this
system was from some panic button who wanted to know why I hadn't received
her payment two days after she mailed it, and who pretty much accused me of
absconding with her twelve dollar money order (I can track it! I can tell if
it was cashed!). She drove me so crazy with twice-daily emails that when her
money order came, I upgraded the shipping to priority just to get rid of
her. (And no thank you for that either, lol.) True to form, she proceeded to
check out the tracking number the UPS website instead of the USPS link that
I sent her. She's the one and only person on my blocked bidders list.

I guess for me it's a customer service issue. For 55 cents, I've got the
USPS working 24 hours a day to answer the most significant customer service
inquiry I'm likely to get.

Alice