Selling Books? Amazon rather than Ebay?

Over the years I've acquired some books I no longer need and was looking to move them. I considered putting them up on ebay, but that involves some up-front issues, including listing fees as well as the work of creating a listing. Then you have to hope someone is looking for that book while your listing is open. So using ebay seemed a bit hit-or-miss, and even if the item didn't sell, it cost something just to try.

Amazon.com seems to be a better choice if you are trying to sell some books. First off, there is no up-front fee to place a listing. So you can put your books up and if they don't find a buyer, it hasn't cost you anything.

Secondly, the listing stays active for 60 days, rather than the 7 day auction period on ebay. So you're giving yourself a longer opportunity to have that buyer find your listing and make the purchase. (And if your book is unsold after y60 days they send you a link to restart the listing).

Another benefit is that you don't have to create a listing from scratch. If you have a book you wish to sell, do a search for it on Amazon. When you find the listing, there will be a link button "Have one to sell? Sell Yours Here." It will walk you through setting up a seller account (not complicated, especially if you already have a regular amazon account). Then you basically decide on the price you want, put in a description of the condition of your book, and away you go. Your listing doesn't need a separate listing or photo because it will now appear among all the sellers who have the book available. If you have the lowest price in the used or new categories, it would appear at the top of a buyer's search.

When you decide to list your book, you can take a look at all the other sellers and conditions of their books to come up with a price at which you think yours will sell. (I think it's important to be accurate about the condition so the buyer will feel satisfied after they get it.) Obviously, if you choose to price it lower than others, you stand a better chance of selling more quickly.

Amazon has a standard method for shipping, so you don't set your own shipping costs. They have the buyer pay $3.99 for standard shipping, so that's what they credit to you when you sell it. For anything short of a heavy hardcover book, $3.99 should be more than enough to send it via Media Mail. If it costs you more than $3.99, the shipping would eat into your book proceeds.

If buyers want the book faster, or if they are not in the U.S., Amazon gives you the choice whether to offer Priority Shipping and International Shipping, with credits of $5.99 and $9.99 respectively, which for most cases would give you enough to cover those postage costs. But you are not required to offer more than standard shipping.

Amazon's commissions after the sale are higher than ebay's. On a book selling for $9 the commission may be about $3, whereas ebay's would be about $1. That could beg the question of why to use Amazon as opposed to ebay. But unless the book is really hot or collectible that a lot of people are looking for (when the new Harry Potter book is issued, I'm sure there will be plenty on ebay, so that kind of book is different), Amazon is the type of site that will attract more shoppers of books of a more routine nature. So even if the commission is higher, the fact that Amazon may actually find you buyers (and not cost you anything if it doesn't) gives it an edge for many kinds of book sales.

When you sell books on Amazon, you are competing against major booksellers who can open business accounts that let them sell at lower commissions. Thus, there are some books available for sale at a dollar or less that you just couldn't afford to match -- your Amazon commission would be more than the sale price! But for books selling for $5-$6 and up, you may actually end up being able to clear out those old bookshelves and get some value in return.

Better than just putting all those books into a yard sale and asking a quarter each, if you ask me.