Selling on Amazon vs. E-bay

[molly2004]

Hi, everyone. I want to raise some vacation funds and have thought about selling on Ebay, but everything looks soooooooo complicated. What do you think about Amazon? I'm looking to sell mostly books.

I'm seeking some responses on the pros and cons of selling on Amazon vs. Ebay. Amazon seems so much easier than Ebay although the commission looks a little steeper. I don't have a lot of spare time so time is money! Have any of you had success with selling on Amazon, particularly books?

Thanks!

 

[starwood]

I seem to sell more on half.com than Amazon. They are owned by ebay but you set the price, they collect the money and then deposit it directly into your bank account. I haven't had any problems selling books there.

It seems everytime I try to list a book at Amazon people are selling it for .01. Since your listing fee is .99 I just don't see how they are making any money. Half.com has no listing fee (just a percentage of sale).

 

[HayGan]

I've had a good bit of luck selling some books and dvds on Amazon since someone here originally gave me the idea about a month ago. The process is SO EASY and definately a time saver. Could I get a little more someplace else - probably but like you time is $$ for me. So for now I will stick with Amazon for books and dvds.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

One pro with selling on ebay is if you have alot of books to sell, like maybe all by the same author or alot of children's books then you can list them in a lot instead of a bunch of individual listings. Just something to think about. Also shipping out a bunch of books at once may be easier on you than one at a time.

 

[cybrarian]

I seem to sell more on half.com than Amazon. They are owned by ebay but you set the price, they collect the money and then deposit it directly into your bank account. I haven't had any problems selling books there.

It seems everytime I try to list a book at Amazon people are selling it for .01. Since your listing fee is .99 I just don't see how they are making any money. Half.com has no listing fee (just a percentage of sale).

There is no listing fee on Amazon. If you are not a Pro Merchant you pay 99 cents plus 15% of the sales price if the book sells. The people selling books for a penny are Pro Merchants who are making pennies on the shipping allowance.

The benefit of Amazon is that you can list books for long periods of time and you pay nothing up front. You also never have to worry about not being paid.
You cannot, however, sell in lots.

 

[welovedis]

Another consider is an eBay store if you will have a number of things to list in auctions and in your store. Right now they are offering a month free (15.95) so you really can't go wrong.

eBay is not hard to figure out at all, especially if you use TurboLister (which you can download for free) to set up your auction ahead of time, then click a button and upload to eBay. There is even a discussion board all about TL on eBay itself with loads of help from those who have been there, done that.

I've recently opened a store and have listed a number of older school textbooks (Dick & Jane era) and although I'm not selling lots of them, I'm selling a few a week and those alone have paid my store fees for next month. Plus the added exposure of having those items up for longer than a week (you can list them forever in a store if you want) is an added bonus.

HTH!

 

[starwood]

The benefit of Amazon is that you can list books for long periods of time and you pay nothing up front.

Half.com has no time limitations. Amazon only lists for a few months (I forget how many - 3-6 months) at a time. I list on half.com and then forget about it.