I thought I would share some details on one of my businesses: sales of books on amazon. When I have time I like to go to bookstores/thriftstores and buy books and things (more on the ‘things’ part in a future post) to sell online. Books I sell primarily on Amazon (if you’re interested, my profile is here), though I also sell through eBay (profile is here) and Facebook. I’ll include some details below.
This past Saturday I hit the stores. I got an email about a ‘25% off your entire purchase’ sale from Habitat so I hit a local bookstore outlet that charges $0.25/book, Habitat, the friendshop at the library, and two local thrift stores. Total purchases for the day were 58 books for $53.08 with about 30 miles of total travel.
So, here’s what I ended up with:
- 14 books I put on Amazon for a total listed value of $397.35. This amount will decay over time as I re-price periodically, but even 25-50% of this value will more than pay for the trip.
- 3 Ellis Peters (listed here) books, and 3 Lizzie McGuire (listed here) books that I’ll add to lots I already have listed on eBay.
- Lot of 5 Judy Baer YA books (here). Listed for $20.
- Lot of 6 Barbara E Sharp mystery novels (here). These are from a Hawaiian author and are in phenomenal shape. I’m guessing these are incredibly small print runs and they’re high-dollar on Amazon. I’ve listed them as a lot on eBay at a high amount, and I’m hoping I can find book one in the series in the future. Listed for $175.
- Lot of 26 Charlotte MacLeod/Alisa Craig mystery books (here). Listed for $58.
- Lot of 5 Charlotte MacLeod books (here). Listed for $15.
- The remainder were Amazon books that didn’t work out – meaning the price I could list them at was less than my initial scan, and after fees they would be money losers. Those were added to the pile to go to the resale shop in town for possible store credit, or for donation to the library.
And that’s it really – basic retail arbitrage with a $53 spend to a potential gross sales total of $665.35. These won’t all sell, and the realized prices will likely be lower than the potential listed, but like I said above, even 25%-50% would mean $166-$322 of sales before fees. I’ve found that what you’re looking for is consistency more than anything. The books above may not sell, may not sell for full price, and may not sell for many months. However, enough sells eventually to make keeping this side hustle running worthwhile.
As an example, in the last week I’ve sold (on Amazon) $156.25 of books purchased in the above method for about $123.93 net of fees. Granted, that’s a very good week for me (sales tend to spike in advance of a school semester) but throughout the year that adds up. Besides, digging through bookstores and thrift stores is fun!
Keep an eye out for future posts – I know I still owe you fine feathered folks a lot!
