Warning when selling on Amazon

**Stallion21** · 01-28-2018, 11:53 PM

Now, I sold a book today only to find that Amazon's fee for the transaction exceeds my income on the sale by $0.62. That's right. I actually lost money in the process.

Holy cow, how is this even possible? Was the price for the shipping so big?

**disneysteve** · 01-29-2018, 06:18 AM

Originally posted by Stallion21 View Post

Holy cow, how is this even possible?

It's possible because their fees are insane.

$1.60 Sale price
+$3.99 Shipping
- $3.63 Amazon fee
- $2.68 Postage
---------------------
Net loss of $0.62

Amazon takes almost the entire shipping fee paid by the buyer, leaving the seller no money to actually pay for postage. $0.36 wouldn't even buy a stamp and certainly isn't enough to ship a book.

**moneybags** · 01-29-2018, 06:22 AM

Have you looked at Chegg.com? I think they just buy books, so I'm sure it isn't as profitable as selling on your own, but may be worth a look if you're losing money. I have not used it, but my kids have friends that have.

**disneysteve** · 01-29-2018, 06:31 AM

Originally posted by moneybags View Post

Have you looked at Chegg.com? I think they just buy books, so I'm sure it isn't as profitable as selling on your own, but may be worth a look if you're losing money. I have not used it, but my kids have friends that have.

Thanks. I'll take a look.

**amarowsky** · 01-29-2018, 10:08 AM

Originally posted by disneysteve View Post

Thanks. I'll take a look.

My wife just found a bunch of books at our house that she wanted me to sell on amazon.

Can you report your findings, after you look into Chegg?

Seems like I may take that route, if they appear to be "ok" on fees.

**disneysteve** · 01-29-2018, 12:09 PM

Just to be fair, selling on Amazon isn't all bad. I've listed 15 books this week. I've already sold 4 of them. Only that one sold at a loss. The problem appears to be that unlike Ebay which charges a percentage of the sale, Amazon has a flat fee plus a percentage. So for a low priced item, the flat fee kills you. That's where I ran into trouble.

My other 3 sales this week haven't been bad.
#1 Paid $7.14. Sold for $4.14.
#2 Paid $8.15. Sold for $4.42.
#3 Paid $16.95. Sold for $14.05.

So we spent a total of $32.24 for the three books and recovered $22.61 by reselling them.

I still highly recommend most students buy books and resell them as opposed to renting. Renting has gotten really popular but most of the time, it's not the cheapest way to go.

**Thrif-t** · 01-29-2018, 03:07 PM

I don't know if this site would be of interest to anybody? We always go here when looking to sell the few that we do to see who will give us the highest price:

BookFinder.com: New & Used Books, Rare Books, Textbooks

https://www.bookfinder.com/?ref=bf_uu_hd_2

Find nearly any book: new, used, rare and textbooks. Get the best deal by comparing prices from over 100,000 booksellers.

**creditcardfree** · 01-29-2018, 04:26 PM

Originally posted by disneysteve View Post

I still highly recommend most students buy books and resell them as opposed to renting. Renting has gotten really popular but most of the time, it's not the cheapest way to go.

I've bought some books used for our daughter, but she needs music which isn't always found used. I've actually been quite surprised at how little of what she has needed we can locate used, and I'm aware of all the various places to look including the link posted above by Thrift-T. Renting has worked out to be the best option for us when available.

**disneysteve** · 01-29-2018, 05:06 PM

Originally posted by creditcardfree View Post

I've bought some books used for our daughter, but she needs music which isn't always found used. I've actually been quite surprised at how little of what she has needed we can locate used, and I'm aware of all the various places to look including the link posted above by Thrift-T. Renting has worked out to be the best option for us when available.

That makes sense. Between buying new and renting, renting probably wins. Even reselling when you bought new isn�t usually as good because of the depreciation. However, buying used and reselling can be great because there is little to no depreciation in just a few months for a used book. We�ve even made a profit a few times when reselling.

**Budget Kitty** · 01-30-2018, 06:01 AM

Have you tried sites that purchase books? There's an app called BookScouter that lets you scan the bar code and then it gives you a price for how much a number of sites are offering. I know this because I'm going through some old books of mine and some that belonged to my father-in-law. You won't get rich but you can clear out some clutter and make a few bucks.

**disneysteve** · 01-30-2018, 06:39 AM

Originally posted by Budget Kitty View Post

Have you tried sites that purchase books?

Those sites pay rock bottom prices because they then turn around and resell the books. I did check chegg and bookfinder. Quite a few of the books they weren't even buying. Of the ones they are, the offers were considerably less than what I'll get selling on Amazon even after the fees.

Those sites are good if you just want to clear stuff out and don't care how much you get. If you want the best prices, though, you need to sell them individually on your own.

**Gailete** · 01-30-2018, 12:28 PM

Some time last year Amazon increased book fees significantly. It is no longer possible to make money selling 'penny books'. You only do this once in awhile apparently, but some book sellers that haven't been paying attention, end up with the same reaction. Many books sellers now won't list a book for less than $10. Text books generally are pretty heavy so they can increase the shipping significantly. You are using media mail to ship them aren't you? Do you buy your shipping via Amazon? Unless you are signed onto a e/postage program or using Amazon/PP for your postage, you are paying more than you have to n postage. The pro sellers can adjust their postage rates that they collect on Amazon and boy is that nice! Individual sellers such as yourself can't, which also doesn't help the situation.

Frustrating I know. A lot of the smaller Amazon sellers feel like some of this is a deliberate move, one of many, to get the small sellers to quit selling on Amazon.

**disneysteve** · 01-30-2018, 02:30 PM

Originally posted by Gailete View Post

Some time last year Amazon increased book fees significantly. It is no longer possible to make money selling 'penny books'. You only do this once in awhile apparently, but some book sellers that haven't been paying attention, end up with the same reaction. Many books sellers now won't list a book for less than $10. Text books generally are pretty heavy so they can increase the shipping significantly. You are using media mail to ship them aren't you? Do you buy your shipping via Amazon?

Exactly right. The fixed fee makes selling cheap books impossible. I didn't realize that, which is my own fault for not studying the fee schedule. I've been selling on Amazon for a while and didn't realize they had changed the rules.

I do buy the postage straight through Amazon. I have no complaint with the postage costs. The problem is with the fees on the low priced items.

**Gailete** · 01-30-2018, 02:40 PM

Just checking that you were getting the cheapest postage possible. It is funny, that here you are a casual seller, and you have a much better grasp of both the obvious in the fees, but the other things with selling. Unbelievable some of the folks that write in on the forum that don't have clue one about anything.

Lately the questions tend to be taxed based. It became law a while back that places like Amazon, PP, ebay, etc. send 1099s to anyone that had 200 sales or $20K in sales. Some of these dingdongs seem to think that as long as they don't get a 1099 or go over that $20K they are NOT required to inform the taxing bodies of their on line income! One guy was gobsmacked because he hadn't made quite $20K and got a 1099 anyway. From the tone and panic backing up his questions, I would suspect he has been filing taxes on his on-line income all along. How could any 'normal' adult in the USA think they can make up to $20K and not have to declare it? Another was surprised to learn that he was supposed to be making estimated payments and now he might have a fee to pay the IRS!

Warning when selling on Amazon