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Selling used book online- A Losing Proposition?!



 
 
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  #11  
Old August 7th 03, 01:36 AM
my-wings
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"Eric Bustad" wrote in message
...
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.


I need to check this out. It seems too good to be true.....Do you still have
to hand these packages in at the window if you print your postage online?

Alice

Ads
  #12  
Old August 7th 03, 01:40 AM
Eric Bustad
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my-wings wrote:
"Eric Bustad" wrote in message
...

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.



I need to check this out. It seems too good to be true.....Do you still have
to hand these packages in at the window if you print your postage online?

Alice


I've only used the Shipping Assistant while using stamps {I'm a stamp
collector], so I don't know for sure.

= Eric

  #13  
Old August 7th 03, 01:46 AM
Eric Bustad
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Scrooge wrote:
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.


You need to download the USPS Shipping Assistant software from
https://sss-web.usps.com/ds/jsps/index.jsp. Windoze only :-(.

= Eric

  #14  
Old August 9th 03, 04:43 AM
Courtney Love
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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?

thanks in advance BRBR

For a number of reasons, the bookseller for whom I consult gave up trying to
sell books on Half.com. It wasn't cost-efficient.

Over the past year I've noticed that online sales seem to be moving to the
lower-end books. It used to be that the average order each month was 12 to 15
dollars per book, but that's fallen now to about 5 dollars. It's unclear
whether that's seasonal or a general trend.

Certainly the supply of used books has increased, driving the overall price
down. But the truly rare books have increased in value enough that their
occasional sale makes up for the dilution of the general book market.


"Justice is as strictly due between neighbor nations as between neighbor
citizens. A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang, as when
single; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang."

--Benjamin Franklin
  #18  
Old August 10th 03, 02:13 AM
Markmrf
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This entire discussion was fascinating. It's one of the few threads I read
all the way through. But, nobody has mentioned that we are still in a
recession (albeit a mild one) and people are probably not spending so much
on anything, including books, and driving up the demand for cheap $3 books
and driving down the demand for 10-15 dollar books.

Also, I believe for most of us selling online it's either a hobby or a
sideline to our "real" jobs. In my real life I am an English teacher and
hope to open a physical bookstore after I retire. But, I also don't--and
never will--sell on half.com, except through abebooks or alibris.

--Mark.


"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?

thanks in advance

Stacy



  #19  
Old August 10th 03, 02:27 AM
Eljaysbks
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Something I haven't seen mentioned in this thread (or maybe I just missed it)
is that Half.com is free to list on, and once one is familiar with Excel or
some other such means of producing appropriate uploads to Half.com, maintaining
an inventory on it takes only 5 minutes a day, max. Although it generates
fewer sales for me than ABE, Amazon, and even Alibris, I don't LOSE money
listing my inventory there and the time I do spend on it is more than
reimbursed by even the meagre sales it generates.

Just a thought.
Frank Jason Oreto
Eljay's Used Books
Pittsburgh's South Side
  #20  
Old August 10th 03, 08:08 PM
Jonathan Grobe
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In article , Eljaysbks wrote:
Something I haven't seen mentioned in this thread (or maybe I just missed it)
is that Half.com is free to list on, and once one is familiar with Excel or
some other such means of producing appropriate uploads to Half.com, maintaining
an inventory on it takes only 5 minutes a day, max.

This option is only open to dealers who can list at least
5000 books with them (books not only with ISBNs but also
in half.com's catalog)

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

 




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