Does anyone have experience selling things on Amazon Marketplace? I'm trying to declutter and bring in a little cash at the same time by selling off some old textbooks that are just taking up space. How much do they take from you for each sale? Is it worth it to go through them? Would eBay or somewhere else (suggestions?) be a better option?
Ebay is definitely a better option for you. Honestly, Amazon is more of a marketplace for selling moguls that have hundreds or even thousands in stock to sell - and are looking to make a good living off of this. Lots of official companies sell on Amazon, as well. And, with this professional competition (along with people that're just starting up their own companies) comes a problem. It pushes out people like you that're trying to sell a few things here and there. And hey, Craigslist is still relevant! You may not find it worth the time, but there might be students in your area looking to buy a textbook.
Thanks for the advice! Craigslist has no appeal to me. Everyone I've known who has sold something on CL has gotten crazy amount of spam emails, calls or texts (whichever contact method they listed in the ad). I'm also not very comfortable with the idea of meeting up with someone for the transaction, and the university I went to was in another state so the schools here almost certainly wouldn't require the same books. I'm not sure I'd have that much competition from professionals on Amazon. Of the items I've looked up already, there are only a few other people selling the same book, and they are all selling for way too high. (One book only has people selling for over twice the cost to buy new, so mine would be the only reasonable option.)
I sell a lot online, but I stay away from Amazon because I think their fees are a little too much, unless you pay a monthly subscription and intend on selling hundreds of items. Not only that, they have preset delivery fees, which are sometimes not enough to cover the cost, so you are also losing out there too! Others are better.
Do you have specific recommendations about which others? Which ones do you have the easiest time with? I've checked, and the flat shipping rate is fine. I may have to pay a couple of dollars extra, but it won't be exorbitant. I'm not looking to make a profit on anything, just get a little income in exchange for more shelf space on my bookcases. I also don't want to turn selling things into a full time job, so whichever ones require the least legwork for me would be best.
@CoolCat You could tryLog In. I sold some text books and other books and dvds on there several years back. It's an eBay site/company, and is specifically for books, textbooks, movies, music and games. I think it and/or regular eBay would be better options than Amazon, and I also avoid Craigslist like the plague.
I think eBay would definitely be a better place to sell for the average persons whose just trying to get rid of household junk. I haven't sold on Amazon so I wouldn't be able to tell you anything on it but I've sold quite a bit on eBay. It was really easy to sell and very straightforward. I'm really not sure about the percentage they take per sale but there are definitely more average sellers getting rid of junk on eBay because everyone around me was using it at the time. Kids we're selling online and recommending it to me so I feel it would be better then amazon in your case.
I've sold a few things on there but it's been at least a year since I last sold something. I don't remember ever giving amazon any money for my sales but I don't know if things have changed or if it was such a small amount that I don't remember. Most of the time I had no problems except the last time I sold a camera and my listing specifically pointed out all the flaws it had and the person who purchased it later cained about one of the flaws (they clearly did not read my listing) and because I refused to reimburse them, amazon told me I could no longer sell through them. Kind of annoying!
I managed to unload a few textbooks on Amazon. It was a mixed bag. It was convenient, because I didn't really have to do anything in order for them to sell, and they went pretty quickly. On the other hand, Amazon took a decent chunk of the money. They also force you to use set prices for shipping, which just doesn't cut it when you have a 4-5 pound book. (I could have saved a little money if I'd gone when the post office was open to get media mail rates, but the timing wasn't good for me and I just wanted to get them off my hands.) It also takes a while to get your money from Amazon. They hold onto the funds for a couple of weeks (I guess to make sure the items arrive and the customer doesn't report any problems), so I won't have all of the money for a bit yet. I have more to sell, but I may try eBay for the next batch. We'll see when I get up the motivation to do it.
I agree that Ebay.com may be a better platform to sell your books also half.com is a good place to sell text books.
Making a fair comparison between the two, I feel eBay is the place to go when you have just a thing to sell that you don't use in your house, whereas Amazon is for serious businesses. I feel that eBay isn't a great choice because PayPal is very sensitive toward buyers and will refund their money in 99% of the cases, regardless of actual proof given by the seller, which completely sucks.
EBAY is a better option if you are looking to declutter your home. The only thing I have had luck selling on Amazon was books. They have fees you have to pay and shipping is a set rate, so you could end up losing money once you pay the fees and shipping costs.
That's my biggest hesitation with eBay. I feel like I trust Amazon more to not screw me over. My husband has had money stolen through a Paypal scam/error (he didn't fall for a scam, but someone managed to make it look like a legitimate transaction). It was resolved quickly and he got his money back, but it seems like such a common occurrence. I have a Paypal account, but right now it's only tied to a credit card and not a bank account. I'm a little worried about connecting it to a bank.
I never sell anything. And when I'm looking for something, e-bay is typically my first stop. so, I'm pretty pleased to have another option no. This is the first time I ever heard of Amazon market place.
I tried to sell books on Ebay once. I didn't have any takers. I'm too iffy about Ebay anyway. Like you said it's too risky and I've been screwed over as a buyer and still mad at PayPal for not backing me up on a scam on something else. I have sold on Amazon before and it's pretty easy. You just follow the instructions with the description of the item price etc. and you're good to go. I chose not to have it fulfilled by Amazon since it wasn't that difficult to ship and it would have cost me extra.
I'm in the slow process of moving to a smaller place. I'm going to have quite a bit of stuff to get rid of, and very little of it will be useless junk. I don't really have much experience selling anywhere. I've always been the buyer. I may have to compare the two before I pick one. Which ever one is going to be easiest will have my business.
You know, there are actual sites just for selling textbooks ,like Bookscouter and Textbookrush. Textbookrush advertises the highest cash payout on textbooks. And I've seen Bookscouter mentioned on many money making blogs. Some people buy books at yard sales just to resell them to Bookscouter. I believe Bookscouter sends you a prepaid label to mail your books to them.
I wish they had been around when it was time to sell my books. The bookstore on campus will pay you about 4$ for a 100$ book. And then sell it used for 85$. It is such a scam! I tried looking around for people who are taking the same class I had taken to see if they wanted to buy the book for super cheap. But I only got that to work out a couple of times.
Oh, good point. I wouldn't have thought of those. I'll need to check them out for my next round of books. I remember that too! The campus bookstore also had inside information on what textbooks were going to be replaced or upgraded to a new revision the following semester, and either wouldn't give you anything for those books or they'd give you something ridiculous. We had message boards that you could use to sell books directly to other students, and I know I bought at least one book that way. It was a better deal for both of us.
I really wish we'd had the message board, like that. I'm far from a social butterfly, so when I needed to know someone to sell my book to I was S.O.L.
