The economics of selling a paperback book online

SteveDallas · 01-20-2006, 06:06 PM

So, as I've mentioned before and as I'm sure everybody has been losing sleep over, I have a bunch of books that I'm trying to get rid of. A lot of what I have is not worth a lot in terms of what it can be sold for online. But I did manage to pull a dozen or so items that are obviously worth my while if they sell. The goal is to get rid of them, but also to bring in some cash, so I'm gritting my teeth at some things. (I sold a book on Mayan history for $3. Now, why the hell would people sell a hardback for $3-$4 when the paperback is selling for $10-$12?? But of course if I had listed for $10 it wouldn't have sold, at least not as long as other people were undercutting it.)

Anyways, the lowest organism on the food chain here is the mass market paperback book. The vast majority of these are being sold on half.com for $0.75. My question is, at that price, is it worthwhile to sell? Half.com will take a 15% commission, leaving me with $0.63, plus a shipping allowance of $2.40 for a paperback book. For one pound or less media mail is $1.59. This leaves us with a net $1.44 after paying for postage.

That's not horrible, but you can't just drop the book in a mailbox. You also have to package it in some reasonable way. So what's the cheapest acceptable shipping envelope? Staples brand bubble mailers run about $1 each or so in small quantities, which wipes out a LOT of profit. Can I do better than that somewhere else? Do I really want to buy a bunch of envelopes in bulk to do this?

(For that matter is there any better place to sell? Amazon marketplace charges $0.99 per transaction plus a percentage unless you subscribe to their selling service, plus a $2.49 shipping allowance--how are people making any money selling stuff for $0.01 there?? Ebay is not attractive for this purpose. abebooks.com takes only an 8% commission, but wants $25 per month, which I guess is quite reasonable for somebody operating a used bookstore, but isn't helpful for somebody like me who just has 3 or 4 boxes of books he wants to move.)

01-20-2006, 06:06 PM	#1
SteveDallas Your Bartender Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Philly Burbs, PA Posts: 7,651	The economics of selling a paperback book online So, as I've mentioned before and as I'm sure everybody has been losing sleep over, I have a bunch of books that I'm trying to get rid of. A lot of what I have is not worth a lot in terms of what it can be sold for online. But I did manage to pull a dozen or so items that are obviously worth my while if they sell. The goal is to get rid of them, but also to bring in some cash, so I'm gritting my teeth at some things. (I sold a book on Mayan history for $3. Now, why the hell would people sell a hardback for $3-$4 when the paperback is selling for $10-$12?? But of course if I had listed for $10 it wouldn't have sold, at least not as long as other people were undercutting it.) Anyways, the lowest organism on the food chain here is the mass market paperback book. The vast majority of these are being sold on half.com for $0.75. My question is, at that price, is it worthwhile to sell? Half.com will take a 15% commission, leaving me with $0.63, plus a shipping allowance of $2.40 for a paperback book. For one pound or less media mail is $1.59. This leaves us with a net $1.44 after paying for postage. That's not horrible, but you can't just drop the book in a mailbox. You also have to package it in some reasonable way. So what's the cheapest acceptable shipping envelope? Staples brand bubble mailers run about $1 each or so in small quantities, which wipes out a LOT of profit. Can I do better than that somewhere else? Do I really want to buy a bunch of envelopes in bulk to do this? (For that matter is there any better place to sell? Amazon marketplace charges $0.99 per transaction plus a percentage unless you subscribe to their selling service, plus a $2.49 shipping allowance--how are people making any money selling stuff for $0.01 there?? Ebay is not attractive for this purpose. abebooks.com takes only an 8% commission, but wants $25 per month, which I guess is quite reasonable for somebody operating a used bookstore, but isn't helpful for somebody like me who just has 3 or 4 boxes of books he wants to move.)

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