Greetings audra58!
The best way to sell books online partially depends on a few factors,
such as: the number of books you have to sell, whether they're newer
books (i.e. within the last 30 or so years) or much older books, what
software you want to use (if any) to keep track of your books, and so
on.
I currently sell books on Amazon.com and in the past I've sold on
Abe.com and also eBay.
You're right, listing books on eBay can be both laborious and costly.
However, eBay has recently been incorporating parts of half.com into
their system. This means that eBay will build your listing when you
supply an ISBN -- information such as the book's general description
will be pre-filled in.
You can see how this works by going to the following link and putting
an ISBN into the box below "Try selling your books on eBay...":
http://half.ebay.com/help/sell_books.cfm
You will still incur the regular eBay charges that you probably
already know about.
I've listed books every now and then on eBay, usually when it's a book
that I think will appeal to ebay users who may not seek out
book-specific sites.
As a quick aside, I'll mention that it's much easier to list items
online (ebay and elsewhere) if the book has an ISBN. Most sites will
pre-fill in all the necessary information (title, publisher, etc.) if
they're able to match the provided ISBN with an iten in their
database. Of course, if your collection is primary older books that
don't have ISBN, then this feature won't be all that useful.
Amazon.com also lets sellers quickly list items via ISBN. And there's
no listing fee to list a book - there's just a fee if it sells.
However, if you're going to be selling 40 or more books a month on
Amazon, it makes sense to become a Pro Merchant subscriber for $39.99.
A Pro Merchant subscription reduces the selling fees a little and
gives you access to more powerful inventory tools.
So on Amazon you basically just have to provide a short description of
the book's condition and also provide the price you are selling it
for. If a buyer orders the book, Amazon handles all the payment
details and then transfers the money to your bank account. It's a
pretty painless process. However, Amazon's commission is 15% which
may seem like a big bite. I recommend listing a book or two on Amazon
just to see what the process is like.
For more information, you'll want to check out the pages at the following link:
"Selling at Amazon.com":
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/1161232
(You can also just look up the book on Amazon's book site and then
click the "Sell Yours Here" link on the book's detail page.)
Then there are sites like Abe.com and Alibris.com. Many booksellers
list all of their inventory on one of those sites. You'll find older
items on Abe/Alibris sites that you won't find listed at Amazon. If
you have some older books you're going to sell, I recommend checking
their sites to see what other booksellers are selling them for.
Like with Amazon, if you're listing a book whose ISBN matches an item
in Abe's database, they will pre-fill in information for you.
Otherwise, you will need to specify the publisher, etc. when listing
the book.
Abe.com does have a monthly fee, the lowest is around $25 and allows
you to list up to 500 books. Abe also takes a 8% Sales Commission on
items sold. And if you have them handle the credit card transaction,
there's a processing fee.
Abe.com has a partnership with other sites so it's very easy to have
all of your Abe items listed at Amazon. Doing this allows your book
to be seen by more people, and you don't have to pay Amazon's
Pro-Merchant fee. If you are on Amazon's site and looking at some of
the used books available, you may see "abebooks" as a seller - these
are books being sold via that partnership program.
Abe.com also offers free software called HomeBase which lets you
easily handle your inventory, upload new books, delete items, etc.
The most current version works on Windows but unfortunately not on a
Mac. For more information on selling with Abe, check out the
following links:
"Selling Books on Abe":
http://www.abebooks.com/docs/Sell/
"Abebooks Fees & Charges":
http://www.abebooks.com/docs/Sell/fees.shtml
Alibris.com is similar to Abe, but with different fees. They also
have partnership programs that allow you to get your books listed on
Amazon.
"Selling Books in Alibris":
http://sellers.alibris.com/why.cfm
Another good site to check out is Bookfinder.com. This places lets
you search for a book across multiple sites. It may be useful in
getting an idea of where the books you have are selling (and for how
much). For example, some unusual book may be offered directly via a
bookseller's website and not via places like Amazon or Abe.
"Bookfinder.com":
http://www.bookfinder.com/
As mentioned above, some bookseller's choose to have their own site
through which they sell books, thereby not needing Abe, Amazon, etc.
This of course is a route you can take, but it would require more
effort (i.e. building a complete site with ordering capabilities,
etc.)
The following two articles are a great read and expand on what I wrote
above. (However, some of their pricing/fee information is a little
out-of-date -- make certain to check the actual selling site for the
most current information.):
"Overview of Top Three Bookselling Venues"
http://www.bookologist.com/cab/abu/y203/m11/bk0016/s02
"Getting Started in the Bookselling Business":
http://www.bookologist.com/cab/abu/y203/m11/bk0015/s01
I hope this information is helpful. If you would like for me to
clarify any part of my answer or further research your question,
please let me know before issuing a rating. And if possible please
provide more specific information on the number and types of books
you're attempting to sell and the costs you are will to accept when
selling books. Thanks!
leep-ga
search strategy used:
my personal knowledge of online bookselling |
