Are there any villagers that sell books on amazon?

**Judi Dial** · 11-03-2010, 09:10 AM

This was interesting for me to read as Amazon has killed the used book busines for those of us who were used book dealers before they existed. Those $1 and .01 books used to be $3 and $1 respectively.

FYI, Amazon sells new books at a loss. The book I had come out in July is CHEAPER on Amazon than I can get it, with an author's or bookdealer's discount, from the publisher. That means they are using the books as a LOSS LEADER to get you to buy a toaster or whatever else they make money at (your account?)

The bookdealers on Amazon have raced each other to the bottom in terms of price, and make their $$$ on the handling fee, rather than the books themselves.

Judi

**Pemberleyan** · 11-03-2010, 09:47 AM

tervsforme answered it well -- if it is a very common book, it's not worth it. I've sold quite a few on Amazon. It's so much easier than Ebay and no charge if you don't sell.

**Vanilla** · 11-03-2010, 10:36 AM

Thank you all for the advices, very helpful.

**SteveA** · 04-05-2011, 11:17 PM

The quick way to check what the books are worth on Amazon is to enter the ISBN number from the back of the book (also located on the copyright notice page). Then, check the lowest used price and see if it is worth it to list the book. My personal limit is $5.00. Be careful with heavy books. Amazon gives you a fixed fee for shipping and you can occasionally lose out when a book is especially heavy and is selling for a low price.

What to do with that group of books that aren't worth selling on Amazon? I've had some luck selling groups of relatively low value books as a "lots" on eBay. I group them by subject or by author.

Good luck!

Steve

**Momto5RN** · 04-06-2011, 08:55 PM

unless its rare or a high demand book or a textbook i would do paperback swap doesnt have to be paperback although you pay the shipping you get a credit for a book and when you pick one the person who has it pays the shipping .

last year i used PBS credits to get my son the books he needed for his honors english classes- saved a fortune.

**hippytreehugger4ever** · 04-08-2011, 02:08 AM

I sell books on Amazon and have found that you need to research it a little bit before you just jump into selling. You need to factor in your shipping, mailing supplies (envelopes, tape, printer cartridges, etc). To be profitable you also need a steady stream of books and someplace to store them, and the organizational skills to be able to find the book when it sells.

Another thing is that sometimes if one of the bigger sellers sees that you don't have much feedback, they might buy one of your books just to leave negative feedback for you and try to put you out of business (I learned this the hard way).