Posted on Monday 8 October 2007
Since i last posted about this, i’ve sold two books! The first was within 4 hours of listing it on Amazon, the other came over the weekend.
In my opinion, when selling books second hand, Amazon Payments far outweighs eBay as the top marketplace for:
- ease of listing your item
- simplicity
- speed of sale (when compared to 7 or 10 day auctions, and if you have a competitive price).
The downsides are that the cost is around 17.5% of sale price, which is higher than eBay (even including PayPal fees). The other is that you only get the standard Amazon charge for postage (minus their administration fee) which, for books, is £2.75, leaving you £2.38 for postage. Try wrapping and posting a 2kg textbook for £2.38!
However, overall verdict - definitely worth it!
Interesting to hear the other side of the story when it comes to the Marketplace, especially with Amazon’s postage fees. Occassionally been put off purchases when I thought the fixed fee was more than it should actually cost, especially when the fee is more than the item itself, which is common with short books. I suppose if you’re running a shop with a variety of items it all balances itself out
Indeed, so have i. I’ve often grudged paying £2.75 for a softback novel that costs £1 to post!