Amazon - The Quick & Dirty Guide

Transcription

1 BY THE AUTHOR OF SELLING ON THE RIVER Amazon - The Quick & Dirty Guide The Scoop on Finding, Listing, and Selling Books (and other stuff) Steve Lindhorst URFER. COM

2 Copyright 2010 GenuineSeller.com All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Legal Disclaimer This book contains statements and claims relating to how much money one can make using these methods. Please understand that these are estimates and projections. The exact amount you can make will depend on your talent, your experience and how hard you work at it. All websites and URLs in this book are current at the time of publication. However, websites change, may be taken down or moved. The publisher and the author are not responsible for the content contained in any website mentioned or featured in this book, nor shall they be liable for any loss or damage arising from the information contained in this book. As with anything you do in life there is no substitute for good judgment. 2

3 Special Edition for Buyers of the Proven Amazon Course (Un-announced bonus) This edition of the Quick & Dirty Guide was created for those who have purchased the Proven Amazon Course. A few years ago, people began leaving ebay due to unpopular changes and policies for sellers. I decided to try Amazon and found potential. However, where ebay was created for third-party sellers, Amazon was not. It was difficult to navigate, and difficult to understand for anyone coming from ebay. That is why I wrote Selling on the River -the ebay Seller s Guide to Amazon.com It explains the basic concepts for selling on Amazon, and it s still a good place to begin. I know you received a ton of information in the PAC. Selling on the River is a good place to start to get the basic concepts a seller needs to know. It is still a good seller for me, so this is no throw-away ebook. As an extra bonus to the package, I want you to have a complimentary copy of Selling on the River. And, when you sign up for my newsletter, you ll receive a coupon code to use on any product in my store. CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR BONUSES! 3

4 Table of Contents Introduction... 6 What to Sell, a Few Quick Tips... 7 Finding Things to Sell... 9 Thrift Stores... 9 CDs and DVDs Goodwill Stores Goodwill Outlet Stores Support Your Local Thrift Store Finding Thrift Stores Wherever You Are Library Sales and Public Libraries Are You a Friend of the Library? Ongoing Sales Estate Sales / Garage Sales Garage Sales Use Caution When Using Amazon as Price Guide Retail Stores Yes, really Tips for Listing Your Items Describing Your Item The Problem of Duplicate Listings Improving Your Chances The Condition Comments Box Pricing Your Items on Amazon Amazon Sales Ranking Research Old or Collectible Items Pricing Strategies What is Amazon Prime? FBA Changes Everything

5 Pricing for Amazon FBA Don t Be Greedy Price to Sell Improve Your Product s Condition Cleaning Book Pages Cleaning Softcover Books Cleaning and Repairing Dust Jackets Repairing Hardcover Books Repairing and Cleaning CDs and DVDs Jewel Cases and Clamshells Cleaning and Repairing Discs Low-Tech Method High-Tech Method Conclusion Index to Web Resources in this Book

6 Introduction Let me lay the groundwork for this guide. I will begin by saying there are more thorough products on the market that discuss every possible aspect of selling media products on Amazon.com. They are very good. However, I have a very short attention span and usually get bogged down looking for the information I really want. Over the past couple of months, my Amazon sales have been very good. A big reason for this is that I have developed a recipe for what works. The biggest improvement happened when I started using Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) to handle my inventory. I buy big batches of items (mostly books and CDs), pack them all in a box and ship them to Amazon s warehouse. They charge me a minimal fee to store them, and when they sell Amazon packs the items and ships them to the customer. If you are unfamiliar with Amazon FBA, I suggest you buy Selling on Amazon s FBA Program ( I am assuming you have at least a basic understanding of selling on Amazon. If you do not here is a shameless plug for my book Selling on the River. Selling on the River is my ebook that teaches the basics of opening an Amazon Seller account and generally getting started as an Amazon seller. You can purchase the ebook at: (end of shameless plug) One more thing before we start I talk a lot about selling books on Amazon. That s because I love books. I used to be a printer and I have a thing for ink on paper. Anyway, you can sell nearly anything on Amazon. Specifically, I encourage you to also look at CDs and (some) DVDs. Keep your eyes open for anything with a bar code. Amazon requires a UPC on most everything. So if you find any product in its original box with a barcode, you may be able to list it very simply on Amazon by creating a Me Too listing. Simply find the product on Amazon, and click Sell yours here. No pictures, no long description, just a quick comment on its condition and your done. As a result of my good sales, and me telling everyone about them I ve been getting lots of questions about finding, listing, and pricing items to sell on Amazon.com. It will be easiest for me to empty my brain in this guide than to reply to hundreds of s, so here we go. 6

7 What to Sell, a Few Quick Tips I have always had a knack for finding things to sell on Amazon as well as ebay. Being tuned in to pop culture really helps. Pay attention to the news, listen to people, and do research to see what people are passionate about. There are some topics that are almost guaranteed to draw buyers. Here are a few that I grab whenever I see them: Specific sports teams or events (Chicago Cubs or Super Bowl) Fishing Especially when specific to a region or species Specific craft books such as Carving Duck Decoys, Creating Fly-fishing Flies, certain kinds of Knitting, certain kinds of Quilting, the list goes on and on. NASCAR always check everything NASCAR-related Books specific to a particular disease especially if not written for the mass market Art books that feature one artist same for Design books that are specific Poetry books that feature a topic or one particular poet. Books that cover social issues in the news African Americans, Gays, Racism, Feminism, Immigration, Women s issues, etc. Psychology and Psychiatry especially if written by experts for other experts. Items related to the middle east especially the modern history of Israel While there are exceptions to the following rules, generally AVOID* the following: Reader s Digest, National Geographic, Time/Life, or any other mass-marketed items Complete Guide to, Encyclopedia of, any type of compilations of tips, tricks, etc. Financial books written for the masses. (They are usually outdated by the time they reach used book shelves.) Any mass-market fiction, unless in Brand New condition. *There are always exceptions to this rule. Think first before ignoring anything. 7

8 When you find items you think will sell, look them over really well. I have purchased books only to get them home and find highlighting, notes, stickers, and owner names inside. This lowers the value. On the flip side, especially with books, look for signatures of the author. This typically raises the value. An autograph is best, but if the author signed the book to someone, it s an inscription. This may or may not affect the price. I have returned home with my day s load of books to find several with author signatures. Look your items over carefully before you list them. Do your research when dealing with signatures. One simple way to start is to type the signer s name into Google, such as Andy Griffith autograph, then search for images. To be a little surer of what media items to buy, I use a scanner. There are several, but the one I use is AsellerTool. Other names you might check are NeatoScan, and ScoutPal. The scanners use Amazon s database to judge whether you should buy an item or reject it. The decision is based on the current prices and the Amazon ranking of the product. Scanners are generally meant for books, but I have found they work on nearly anything with a barcode. I ve used the scanner on CDs, DVDs, books, toys, software, - even a CPR kit still in the box. Now where can you find these gems? 8

9 Finding Things to Sell I have found the following locations to be very productive. They are also available to most people even in small towns. Thrift Stores Library Sales Estate Sales Garage Sales / Yard Sales / Church Sales Book Stores / Music Stores / Video Stores Thrift Stores I live in a relatively small town in California. We have two good thrift stores and a Goodwill store. My local thrift stores have a high turnover so I go in at least 2-3 times per week. Once you look through the inventory enough, if you re like me, you ll be able to spot the new merchandise pretty quick. Even if I don t go often, I have learned that in most thrift stores the people stocking the books add the new ones to the ends of the shelves. They aren t in any real order, and the person stocking is either low-paid, or maybe even a volunteer. They often do the easiest thing to get the job done. While I go mostly for the books, you may want to try other things. Also, don t forget about ebay while you re browsing. I have picked up several things that do better on ebay than Amazon. For example, I saw a clay bread baker at a thrift store and bought it for $8. On ebay that baker is bringing $40 regularly. Also, since some categories are restricted on Amazon, such as apparel you might pick up a pair of Diesel Thanaz 73J jeans for $5 and sell them for $400. When you re shopping in the thrift store, you may have other people shopping right next to you. If you think you see a good book, rather than looking up the price right then, just put it in your basket and discreetly walk away to check prices. Recently, I found a whole section of books, new to my thrift store, which dealt with African-American issues. There 9

10 was a guy kind of hovering over me as I shopped, and I m pretty sure he was also a book seller. So I just scooped them up and checked them a few steps away so as not to draw too much attention. They were all listed on Amazon for $10 or more I paid about $.75 each for them. If you are a regular at your local thrift stores you will often get a better deal. Usually, I buy a pretty good sized stack of books. The clerk will often just glance over the stack and give me a single price rather than pricing out each book. It s hard to ask for this treatment until the store Scanner Etiquette employees know you re a regular. Plus, they don t If you choose to use a have to do it at all. Be nice, and you ll likely get this scanner, remember that you treatment eventually. are not the only person that matters. Put items back in place after scanning for the next customer. Some people pull items out to scan them, and then leave messy shelves for employees to clean up. I always try to keep my cost down by taking advantage of sales. My local stores have 2-for-1 days, or buy 2 get one free days. Ask when they plan to have those sales. If you can buy decent books and keep your cost under a dollar you will usually do pretty well. CDs and DVDs One area often overlooked by sellers hunting for stuff to sell is CDs and DVDs. I have found CDs can be especially profitable, and they re usually not the ones you d expect. Classical CDs can often bring really good prices. Music connoisseurs may want a particular musical piece, played or directed by a certain person. It could be that there was only one recording of that combination and it s out of print. I ve bought CDs for $1 that sold for $40 thanks to those music lovers. DVD sales are extremely competitive, but it s worth looking for unique or obscure titles. The scanner really comes in handy in these cases. But sometimes you just have to go with your gut. I walked into my local thrift store recently and spotted seasons 1-10 of the TV show Dallas on the counter. They hadn t even been put on the shelf yet. I asked for a price for all of them, and happily paid $25 for everything. Within one week, every season sold for a total of about $175 on Amazon. Don t be just a book seller. 10

11 Goodwill Stores Speaking of prices and cost, Goodwill is the most expensive thrift store in my area. Some sellers avoid Goodwill, but I still shop there. Why? One word Zeckendorf. A couple of years ago, I was digging through the book shelves at Goodwill and saw a book with the title Zeckendorf. At the time I was looking books up on my cell phone, and that book came back with a price of nearly $300. I was thrilled, and happily paid three times my normal limit for books - $3. I took it home and did a little cross-research on AbeBooks and Alibris and sure enough, it was a rare book. About two months later, I sold my copy for $239 on Amazon. Because of Goodwill s higher prices, I have to be pickier about buying items there. I ll pass up a book at Goodwill that I may have purchased at the thrift store simply because my cost is higher. My local Goodwill has an online calendar listing their sales for the month. I mark the Here are my treasures from the last Goodwill book sale day. Four book sales on my own calendar stores about 100 books, CDs, and DVDs. Most will bring between and wait till then to grab the $10 - $25. lower-profit books. On the day of the book sale, I hit four Goodwill stores in my county. Plan ahead! Most of these books were ranked better than 40,000 and in some cases I ll have the only one listed. Others have pretty poor rankings, but their scarcity makes them worthwhile to list, even if they take a few months to sell. 11

12 Goodwill Outlet Stores Many people have never heard that Goodwill has outlet stores. It s my understanding that these big stores are the last stop before even Goodwill gets rid of stuff. You have to do a little detective work to find the Goodwill Outlet stores, but they can be goldmines. Tips for a Successful Goodwill Outlet Trip: Bring a pair of gloves to protect your hands from things that you may come across in the bins Plan on spending several hours Leave kids at home, if at all possible. Goodwill Outlet locations are usually very busy; and the customers can sometimes get aggressive Keep your finds close to you. People will shop out of your box or cart, if you turn your back Shop often. New merchandise is put out throughout the day The one near me is in an industrial park. The building is cold and kind of like a warehouse. Rather than neat shelves, most merchandise is in big bins and big cardboard gaylords. Buyers have to sift through tons of merchandise to find things, but it is usually cheap, cheap, cheap. At least clothing, housewares, books, etc. are separated into their own bins. But as an example, books are just thrown in big barrels on top of each other. Unfortunately, some get damaged because of this, but with patience and a scanner you can do some serious shopping. Be forewarned though if you go to a Goodwill Outlet, you ll find your fellow-shoppers do not always comport them-selves in a civilized manner. There can be a little nudging and elbowing when a new bin is moved in with fresh merchandise. Deal with it, it s worth it. You can see if there is a Goodwill Outlet near you by visiting: If there is an outlet store in your area, you ll see a button that allows you to sort for one. 12

13 Support Your Local Thrift Store Remember that not everyone shopping in thrift stores are trying to find things to resell. Some people need to shop there because of the economy. If you find you have items left over due to condition, bad purchases, or some other reason, donate back to your thrift stores. 13

14 Finding Thrift Stores Wherever You Are You may think you know about all of the thrift stores in your area. I thought that too. Then after some research, I found a few that I had never noticed before. You could find yourself on a trip with a little time on your hands, how do you find thrift stores away from home? I found a great website called The Thrift Shopper that allows you to search the U.S. for thrift stores. Find it at: Other Thrift Store Resources USA Goodwill Industries The Salvation Army Savers/Value Village Thrift Town Mennonite Central Committee Canada Salvation Army Store Locations MCC Thrift Shop Network UK London s top 20 thrift stores Association of Charity Shops Australia Savers/Value Village RSPCA Thrift Shops I m sure there are more but at least this list shows there are stores nearly everywhere. 14

15 Library Sales and Public Libraries One of the other local sources for books, CDs, and DVDs is the Library Sale. Most of the communities around my area have a volunteer Friends of the Library (FOL) organization. Throughout the year, the FOL has sales to raise funds for the library. These sales consist of some books that have been pulled from circulation and some books that were donated by the public. Many people think that when they donate a book to the library, someone puts a library card in it, and it goes on the shelf. The vast majority of the time however, that is not the case. Most donated books go into the FOL book sale, and for sellers that is a good thing. If you make a habit of going to FOL book sales, look for sales that have a large percentage of donated books. Generally people who donate books to their local library like books, and take care of them. So when you can pick up donated books at the sale, they are generally worth more than a beat up library copy. Ex-library copies are never much better than Good condition on Amazon, and often they are just Acceptable condition. You ll get less for these lower-grade books since they often have seen heavy use, and when taken out of circulation they are stamped reject or discard. Even good ex-library books have the name of the library stamped somewhere on the book. How can you find the sales? My favorite site for finding FOL book sales is You can plan your calendar around their listings. Not every FOL group is listed there though, so you should check each library on your own in your area. If you use a scanner, you will want to be discreet and polite with it. Greedy idiots have ruined some sales for other book sellers. These selfish people plow through the books pulling them out to scan the barcodes, and then leave the tables looking like a tornado hit it. Other customers get very frustrated at this and so do the people who spent hours set everything up nicely. Another thing that is getting the attention of the FOL staffs is hording. Again, it s the greedy idiots that do this. They just grab armloads of books and carry them to the 15

16 corner to scan them. They keep what they want and leave the pile behind. While they are busy scanning, no one else can touch their horde, so those books are basically unavailable during that time. The result is that some book sales do not allow scanners anymore. In fact they don t allow electronics of any kind. Bottom line: calm down, enjoy yourself, and be polite, there is enough for everyone. Are You a Friend of the Library? Friends of the Library groups also raise money through paying members. Members get certain benefits, and as a seller, you may want to consider joining several FOL groups. First of all, you don t have to live in the town to be a member of the FOL. I am a member of several. Why? The main reason is early access to the books. In my small town, members are allowed in one hour before the general public. In a town near me, members get to go to preview night where they get the entire evening to pick everything over. It s usually pretty inexpensive to join. In my area, the prices range from $5 to $15 per year. At least one group charges $40 for book dealers. If you sell books on Amazon, consider yourself a book dealer. The people at the checkout counter will figure it out anyway when you come up with a stack of dozens of books including such varied topics as How to Groom Your Poodle, The Truth about Menopause, and Building Birdhouses from Human Hair. (I made those titles up but you get the point.) Don t try to fool the checkers you won t. Ongoing Sales Many libraries have shelves of books, CDs, and DVDs for sale at really low prices. I always swing by the library and scan the shelves for new arrivals. I ve picked up some great deals at these ongoing sales. You may not have noticed these areas before, but ask the librarian if your local branch has one. 16

17 Estate Sales / Garage Sales Can you find things at estate sales? Absolutely! My wife suggested estate sales, and I pooh-poohed the idea. There couldn t be enough books to consider at one sale, I figured. I was wrong. The most recent sale I went to was for the estate of a very old lady who had just passed away. My friend dropped me off, and I found an entire upstairs studio with nearly every wall covered with book-shelves. I found some great items, and after a couple of hours I called my friend to pick me up. While I was waiting for my ride, I went back for one more sweep. I found two more books. One has already sold for $34 (I paid $1). The second one hasn t sold yet, because I have to have it appraised. It was on the bottom shelf and looked like a normal book. The title caught my eye though, so I opened it. It looked kind of weird, definitely old. But there was no ISBN so I typed it into Amazon using my cell phone. The two that were on Amazon were listed at over $400. Then it dawned on me that this was a really old book in fact it was from 1713! Once I got home I did some more research, I found out that this book was actually two volumes in one, and the second volume (from 1724) made it worth even more! So far, I have found other examples priced at around $800. The only problem is the book was rebound, actually re-cased with a new cover. When that was done, the book s margins were trimmed. This lowers the value, but it s likely still worth several hundred dollars as it. Not bad for $3. 17

18 So estate sales can be very good for hunting down items including books. If you find something that may be very valuable, don t take a chance on giving it away, get it appraised. Amazon is a fixed-price marketplace, so you might either price too high, or too low and you re stuck. Do your homework. Garage Sales I still get a kick out of garage sales, yard sales, rummage sales, whatever you call them. In fact, it was a garage sale that led to my interest in selling on Amazon. Obviously, one of the tricks of garage sales is spotting which ones are going to be good ones, and which ones will be duds. I watch Craigslist the closest for sales. It really pays to be among the earliest customers if you re going to get the good stuff. Since you can only be in one place at a time, you ll need to prioritize. You ll need to strike a balance between the good sales and driving time. Put your #1 sale first, then figure out where the nearest appealing sale is from there, and so on. There are websites for sales and they can be a big help, depending on whether it s effective in your area. I like It pulls ads from Craigslist and lets you you re your route. You can also visit If your area is covered, you can pick your sales, and then print out a route map for yourself. I use a very effective method for getting good prices at garage sales. I gather everything I want to buy, place it on the table and ask the seller How much for all of this? Invariably they will glance it all over and give me a better price than if everything was priced individually. I ve heard some hard-core buyers do this and if the seller starts the onesie-twosie pricing they speak up and repeat how much for the pile? (I m not good at being that blunt, but you get the point nonetheless.) Sometimes the pace at sales is little more hurried. If that happens, be prepared to buy a whole box of stuff at once if the price it right. If I see 20 books in a box, I can pretty safely bet there will be a $10 or even $20 book in there after a quick look. If I m in a hurry I just ask how much for the box? I may have some duds, but usually I wind up 18

19 making money. That works for many items besides books give it a try, it s a calculated risk. By the way I do use my scanner at garage sales and estate sales. I just try to be discreet about it. I have had people ask what it is or what I m doing. I just explain that I am looking for certain books, and I have a database in my little handheld scanner (which is absolutely true). Usually that s enough to satisfy them. 19

20 Use Caution When Using Amazon as Price Guide Be careful about using Amazon as a price guide. Just because something is listed for $XX.00 doesn t mean it s worth that amount. Sellers are free to price their items however high they wish. But the price doesn t always reflect that item s true value. Many of us have seen items priced wildly high on Amazon. I have personally found books, looked them up on Amazon and found they were listed for a really high amount. I got all excited and bought the books, only to get home and find out there was only ONE listed at that high price, and all the rest are listed much lower. The reason that happens from time to time varies. One reason is some people are just nuts. Another explanation is that when sellers list their items in bulk, they may want to go in and tweak a couple of things afterwards. For example, when I list my books in bulk, the prices default to $199. Of course I don t expect a person to come along and pay that amount. I m basically using the price as a place-holder until I can go in and edit the listing with a more accurate (realistic) price. Finally, there are software programs that automatically price some things on Amazon. Booksellers use auto-pricing software all the time. They can configure the software to adjust the price based on the prices other sellers have set. They may choose to have their prices automatically drop to $.05 below competitors with an item in identical condition. But what if there are no identical items listed on Amazon? In that case, some autopricers default to a very high price. But that obviously doesn t mean it s a good price. Once someone else lists an identical item, the auto-pricer will see their (true) price, and adjust according to the seller s auto-pricing criteria. 20

21 Retail Stores Yes, really The last place on our list that you should consider is the retail store. Book stores, music stores, and even video stores especially can be good sources of profitable items. Consider stores such as The Grocery Outlet as well. I have found non-media items there that sell very well. One thing I always watch for is diabetic test strips and the testers they go into. (You won t be able to sell test strips on Amazon, but they are VERY profitable on ebay. Office supply stores often have a clearance table with heavily discounted items. If you see printer ink cartridges, new in the box, you might consider picking it up and reselling it. Even if it s just past the expiration date, it will still work just fine. Regarding books There are used book stores in my area that have a $1 rack near the front door. These are often perfectly good books. I have purchased from that shelf and resold them for a nice $5-$25 profit on Amazon. The same goes for music stores. There is a large college in the town next to mine. In that town there are also a few large music stores. They have used CDs for $1, and many of them are selling on Amazon for between $5 and $10. Occasionally, you ll even find that obscure gem that can turn your $1 purchase into a $20 bill or even more! Even stores like Barnes and Noble or Borders can be a source. Those stores have occasional deep discounts on high-ranking books. If you belong to their frequent shopper programs, you can save another 10% or more on top of the discounts. Do your homework, and you can earn money by buying at retail stores. The key is to keep your eyes open. Even if you only pick up one item, just throw it in a box when you get home. When you get a dozen or more, sit down and list your stuff. Now that we ve talked about where you can find books, and other things, let s talk a little about the actual listings. 21

22 Tips for Listing Your Items Whether you are selling books or other items on Amazon.com there are a few things you can do to improve the odds of a successful sale. Most are common sense, but we ll run through them really quick. Describing Your Item It should go without saying, but it s really important to describe your item s condition accurately. The first step to doing that is choosing the best sub-condition. First though, is the item New or Used? Very simply, don t say an item is new if it s not. New means exactly that New. One sure way to get negative feedback is listing an item as new, and then a buyer buys it for a gift. How embarrassing to find the New item has the owner s name written somewhere on it. If your item is used, you ll need to choose a subcondition, they are: Like New Very Good Good Acceptable Unacceptable (not sellable on Amazon) Print the condition guidelines out and tack them up where you can refer to them when you re listing your Amazon items. The better the condition of your item, the more you can charge. So it pays to really look things over. If you can improve an item from Good to Very Good, you can make more money. At the end of this guide I ll give you some of the methods I use to clean up books and CDs. I have pulled CDs back from the brink of ruination and sold them as Good. I ve cleaned books up and added $10 or more to their value by being able to improve their condition by one or two steps. 22

23 Learn these condition guidelines well. You will need to make judgments when you re buying, and you won t always have the guidelines in front of you. I printed the page out and tacked it on the wall in front of my desk so I can refer to it as I grade and list my Amazon inventory. Each category has its own version of the guidelines. Obviously, guidelines for Books will be different than the guidelines for Computers. You can find them all listed at: There you ll find this page: You ll be tempted to fudge the guidelines a little. Just remember, the sub-condition you choose is what Amazon will look at if there is a dispute. 23

24 For example, let s say you choose Like New, and then in your Condition Comments box you say, This book is Like New except for highlighting on two pages. If the buyer asks for a refund, because the book is not Like New Amazon will side with the buyer. They will make a judgment based on the sub-condition you chose. They will likely not even consider the condition comments. So even though it hurts sometimes to mark an otherwise beautiful item as only Good because of what seems to be a minor flaw suck it up and do the right thing. The Problem of Duplicate Listings One of the nice things about Amazon is the ease of listing. There are so many items in Amazon s massive catalog that usually all a seller has to do is find the item he s selling, then click Sell yours here. What do you do when you want to sell a book without an ISBN? You may run into a situation where you re trying to list an older book, so you type the title into Amazon s search box and a dozen results come up. Since there is no ISBN to lock in older books, some sellers think they can create a new product detail page for their book. That way they ll be listed as the only seller on that page instead of appearing alongside competing sellers. First of all, Amazon is always working to eliminate duplicates. So eventually, those pages will be merged into one. So which one of the results do you choose to list your non-isbn book? I always choose the one that comes up first when you type in the title and / or author. That seems to be the one that the search function likes best. When it seems like you have a bunch of duplicate listings, make sure you see all the details before you choose one. For example, make sure you re comparing apples and apples. Check whether the one you choose is hardcover or paperback; compare the editions if available, and the publication year. They should be exactly the same, or you shouldn t list your item on that product detail page. 24

25 Improving Your Chances Amazon Pro Merchants have the ability to edit some information on existing product detail pages. They may add information about the product that the creator of the product detail page did not include. The more information available to buyers and search engines the better it is for you as a seller. I have corrected mistakes in titles, added co-authors, photographers, and publication dates to book listings. Once again though, it s not just for books. If you can contribute something to a product detail page that will better represent the product, do so. If you have created a new product detail page and have the ISBN or ASIN for the Amazon catalog page, click the "Edit your product detail pages" link in the Manage Your Inventory section in your Seller Account. Simply enter the product identifier and click the "Search now" button to open the editing page. When you create a new listing or relist a closed item, the confirmation page that appears after you click the "Submit your listing" button will display a "Product Information" section. Click the "Edit" button in the upper right, then click the "Edit this product" button in the box at the right side of the next page. If you have an active listing for a product, start from the "View your current inventory" link in your Seller Account. Locate your listing and click the "Edit" link. The "Edit This Product" box will appear on the next page. 25

26 The Condition Comments Box Once you choose your item s sub-condition, you will have an opportunity to expand on your specific item. You can add comments to explain any unique features of the item you re selling. You may remember from my book Selling on the River, the product detail page already has a generic description of the product your condition comments are supposed to describe the condition of your particular item. Many big sellers use a boilerplate comment that never seems to change. I especially like the ones that say May be ex-library copy. May have previous owner s name inside. Well, if I m looking for a clean copy, that seller didn t really tell me what I need did he? In fact, he just scared me away. I love listing next to that kind of seller. Because I inspect every item I sell, and I describe the very item the buyer will get. That s why the condition comment box is there. When buyers see my comments, they know exactly what they re getting. It s okay to use the condition comments box to point out that you ship the next day, offer a free shipping upgrade, or that you ve been in business for ten years. Just describe the item first. There is plenty of room for both. Don t get lazy and use those rubber-stamp comments for your items. Look around at other seller s comments. Note how they describe their items. Adopt their wording for your comments. 26

27 Pricing Your Items on Amazon Seller or Collector Which are You? When I was a kid, I can remember more than one farmer with a cool old car or truck on his property just rusting away. Occasionally someone would make an offer for the vehicle. But the farmer would puff out his chest and declare the offer ridiculously low. Meanwhile, every year more and more weeds grew through the floorboards. What a waste. Finally, the vehicles would just be hauled away for junk. The farmer lost the sale trying to squeeze another nickel out of the buyer. When you put items on Amazon to sell, don t make yourself a collector. You need your inventory to move to convert it to cash. I m not saying to give things away, but be competitive on price. I look for my nearest reasonable competitor when I set my prices. Then I price close to their price. Do I always want to be the lowest? No. Sometimes I ll purposely set my price just a few cents higher than the competition. I do that to keep from setting off the autopricers. Then I read their condition comments. For example if they say their copy of a book is an ex-library copy, I say the exact opposite. NOT an ex-library copy. If they say, Small tear on dust jacket. I point out that my Dust jacket is in great condition. And so on. Buyers will see your item right next to the competitor, and your description will make up for the few cents difference. Amazon Sales Ranking The sales rank is a measure of how often a particular book sells compared to every other book in Amazon s catalog of millions of titles. Other products have a ranking too, but in the media categories the ranking should be taken into consideration when you are buying books to resell. Some people way smarter than me have figured out that books ranked in the top ten on Amazon will likely sell around 5,000 copies a week. While a book with the 100,000 ranking will sell about 1.5 per week. 27

28 Speaking in generalities the higher the ranking (closer to #1), the lower the price will be. That makes sense, since new popular books are ranked higher and there is a larger supply. Sales ranking is important to you as a seller since you re buying inventory you hope to sell. Your money is tied up until a buyer comes along. To keep your money flowing, you want books that will move quickly, while still bringing a good price. Balance is needed though. Just because you have a high-ranking book doesn t mean it s going to sell for a profit. If there are hundreds of identical copies already listed on Amazon, you won t make much. The only advantage you may have is using FBA and getting better position in the search results. Even then, there are a lot of other sellers using FBA too. When choosing your items to sell, you have to strike a balance between sales ranking, and the number available on Amazon already. (This is why I like the hand-held book scanner. It computes everything for you.) If I see I could sell a book for $20, but the rank is 400,000, I ll take a look at how many other copies are available. If it s pretty low, I ll probably buy it, especially since I ll probably be the only one sending it directly to Amazon. If an Amazon Prime customer comes along, I ll almost certainly get the sale. 28

29 Research Old or Collectible Items I believe ebay is the best place for anything collectible. Amazon is okay, but ebay will still probably bring the passionate collectors. Be careful when selling items on Amazon that can t be identified with a barcode or ISBN. Without that universal identifier, sellers can create a confusing list of duplicate items. When you list yours, you may choose one that doesn t describe your item as well as it should, and it can cost you sales. For example, let s say you want to sell Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. You search for the book and find many versions are listed. There are hardcover and paperback versions. In most cases, it wouldn t make too much difference which one you chose to associate your book with. But what if yours is a first edition, signed by Kurt Vonnegut himself? Then it could make a huge difference by hundreds of dollars! Here are just a few types of items to research well before listing on Amazon: Antiques Signed or Autographed Items Vintage clothing Rare books / pre-isbn books Amazon does not freely offer details about merchandise sold on its site. You can look up a product and see how it s currently priced, but actual sales data is the most useful. A little detective work will usually give you enough info to set a price for rare or collectible items. 29

30 Cross-check prices with similar marketplaces before you set your price. It s not hard to do. Just hit all the big marketplaces: ebay (Terapeak is a great ebay research tool.) Google > Shopping For books - Bookfinder.com Abebooks.com Alibris.com Dig around in those sites for your exact item, and use what you find as a guide. I ve also found many rare book stores will help you determine a value. There are some very nice people in this world that will help you in a pinch. Be nice to them, and you ll find some good contacts that you can develop long-term relationships with. Pricing Strategies When you set your prices, think like a buyer. FYI buyers aren t dumb. As a buyer, I want to get the biggest bang for my buck. I want the best product, in the best condition, relative to the price I have to pay. Since we re talking a lot about books, let s use an example of a book I need for work. I have a problem with organization so I want to buy Getting Results for Dummies. I m the only person in my house that will read it, or probably ever see it. So I don t care if What is Amazon Prime? Amazon Prime is a membership program that gives you and your family "all-you-can-eat" fast shipping for eligible purchases. For an annual membership fee of $79, you will enjoy: Fast Delivery Free Two-Day Shipping on more than one million instock items sold by Amazon.com. Free Standard Shipping for eligible items shipped to P.O. boxes in the continental United States (excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories, possessions and protectorates) and APO, FPO, and DPO addresses with U.S. zip codes. Simple Shopping No minimum purchases required. Members-only 1-Click buttons on product pages. No need to think about shipping charges when you order. 30

31 it s perfect. A good used copy is all I need. I m going to search for the book, and when I find it, I ll see a variety of used subconditions. My eye will go to the cheapest one listed. Plus, I m an Amazon Prime member (see box above), so I am interested in something with the Prime icon next to it. If I find a book rated Very Good, and it s priced the same as the lowest price Acceptable copy, obviously I m going to take that one. So when you re pricing your items, consider what it is, the Amazon ranking for that product, and its sub-condition. Sometimes you ll get a turkey that you just want to move and get rid of it. Sometimes you ll want to sit on an item if necessary to get a good price. FBA Changes Everything Understanding what Amazon Prime is will help you understand why using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) may be a good choice for you as a seller. Amazon Prime members pay about $80 per year for their membership. With that, they get free 2-day shipping in the US, among other things. They are Amazon powershoppers, and they like to get their money s worth. When you search for items on Amazon, the search results will (generally) display items eligible for Prime at the top of the list. Just to be clear, the only items that qualify for the Prime icon are: 1) items sold directly by Amazon.com, and 2) items fulfilled directly by Amazon. Basically, when Amazon actually has possession of the inventory, they are better control of the customer experience. So if you use Amazon to fulfill your orders, by shipping your inventory to Amazon s warehouse, you get great placement in search results and Amazon Prime members will actually seek out your items. Even when a shopper is not a Prime member, the FBA program still benefits you. You still get the high placement in search results, and your items qualify for Amazon s Super-Saver Shipping. 31

32 When a shopper buys a qualifying item, Amazon lets them know that if they order at least $25 worth of merchandise, they can get free Super-Saver Shipping. Only items fulfilled directly by Amazon qualify so again, you have shoppers looking for those items over non-qualifying items. Pricing for Amazon FBA When Amazon fulfills your items and you make a sale, you don t get a shipping credit, since you re not actually shipping the product. On the other hand, if you price your items with the Amazon Prime member in mind, you can make more money in the long-run. For example, let s say I list a book for $5.00 and sell it. I ll get my payment (minus fees) plus a $3.99 shipping credit. I then have to pack the book, label the package, and ship it, which eats up my $3.99. If I use FBA, and target Amazon Prime members, I can ignore the shipping because they won t have to pay it anyway. Now I can charge $8.99 instead of $5.00 for my book and still make the sale. Besides that, I don t have to pay for a box, label, and take time to ship the item. Once the fees are subtracted, I walk away with more than I would have if I d listed the item for $5.00 and it was easier for me. Earlier I mentioned the ebook, Selling on Amazon s FBA Program ( Program). In that book you ll find all the details on fees and a more in-depth strategy. I can tell you from first-hand experience Amazon s FBA program is making me much more money. 32

33 Don t Be Greedy Price to Sell Let s say you re browsing through a sale and you find a book, look it up, and it s worth $100. Your price is just one dollar. When you get home to list that book, how will you price it? Many people would simply answer, $100 of course! The fact is though, if it s actually worth $100 on Amazon, it s likely to be ranked very low, and it may be awhile before a buyer comes along. When a buyer does find your book, and let s say there are four more copies listed right next to yours, what are you going to do to make them buy? You may have a great description, as mentioned above. But in this case you really want to snag that buyer. Another may not come along for quite awhile. Contrary to advice I give at other times, this is a time to compete on price. You are in business to sell stuff. You are not in business to collect books (or whatever else you may be selling.) You only paid a dollar for it! Sell it and go buy more things to sell. The bottom line is you re dealing with a fixed-price market. No bidding, no haggling. It s more important to move the inventory than to squeeze every last nickel out of every item. Keep your price low enough to get that sale. Don t be greedy it will cost you sales. Let the other sellers be greedy you be smart and get the sale. Don t be like a stingy old farmer with a ruined, rusty old truck in a field. 33

34 Improve Your Product s Condition Let me start by saying I am not advocating amateur restoration of books or any other rare thing. That is a good way to ruin the value of an item. Having made that point, there is nothing wrong with cleaning up your items before you ship them. Once again, I m going to focus on books and media in general, but the principles apply to other used items. The closer your items are to New, the more you can ask for them. It s simple. So if you can clean any grime or stickers off your books, or polish up (or replace) a CD jewel case, you can sell things for more. I don t recommend trying my methods on anything you can t afford to lose. So no nasty s, please. Evidently, many people are not as careful with their books as I am. I have picked up books at thrift stores and sales that have had stains and encrustations of every kind on them. **Helpful hint: Keep a little bottle of hand sanitizer in your car so you can use it after going through the used books after a sale or store. Yuck. I try to determine if the encrusted matter will dissolve with water or a solvent. Sometimes a book is just a bit dirty with real dirt. Consider too, whether you are cleaning the pages, a soft cover, a hard cover (vinyl, leather, or cloth), or a paper dust jacket. Cleaning Book Pages There isn t much you can do to clean the paper other than use a really good eraser. With a good quality eraser, you can clean all kinds of things from paper. I highly recommend investing in a STAEDTLER Mars-Plastic Grand eraser. I have had the same one for nearly 30 years, and it is magic. 34

35 If you re dealing with torn pages, and you are NOT dealing with a rare book, just use Scotch magic tape. I rarely do this, but if I do repair a page, I mention it in the condition comments. Cleaning Softcover Books Most of the softcover books today have a tough, laminated cover. They are laminated with plastic, so they are water-resistant. Never soak these covers in anything or you ll ruin them. If you are dealing with food or other grime that will soften in water, use plain water or a little window cleaner on a paper towel. Don t spray anything directly on the book, get it on the paper towel first, and then apply. If you are trying to remove a sticker, or glue from a price tag, I recommend a product called Goo Gone for that. It contains natural citrus oils and smells like oranges. After you use it, gently buff the cover with a completely dry paper towel. You ll see it even restores a little of the shine of the original cover. What about permanent marker? Is it really permanent? Not really. Acetone will usually remove permanent marker ink. Use a clean paper towel, or a cotton swab. Where can you get acetone? Any lady will know your local drug store has it, it s used for fingernail polish remover. Just make sure you get the regular, flammable, toxic version. You don t want any perfumes or non-toxic polish remover because it likely won t work. Cleaning and Repairing Dust Jackets The dust jacket can move a book from Acceptable condition to Good or better. If I m dealing with a relatively common book, and it has a small tear in the dust jacket, I repair it and note it in the condition comments. Purist book collectors will hate me for giving you that advice, but for a common book that just has a little rip; it s not a big deal. 35