How to sell books You guide to selling second hand books or reselling books. How to find what to buy, where to sell plus tips and tricks to make it a profitable side business. Kylie Ofiu http://kylieofiu.com
Selling books online can be quite profitable and fairly easy. Once you know what you are doing it becomes a simple process and a great way of making money on the side. What books should you sell? You can sell anything and everything, but to get the faster sales and higher prices it is better to look for more specific non-fiction books rather than the latest best seller. Whilst you can occasionally get popular novels at great prices and resell them, there tends to be more of them around, making it harder to sell. Fiction novels are usually bought read once and then passed on whereas non-fiction books are often bought to keep and be referred back to, which makes selling them easier as there are less on the market. Also avoid romance novels or other small, cheap books. The cheaper a book is new, the harder it is to sell second hand. There are a few ways to find out which titles or genres are particularly popular. - Check ebay sold listing to see which titles have been selling and for how much. - Take note in forums you frequent to see what books are talked about, but also where those members buy their books. This will help you to know what to buy and where to sell them. - Check what books bloggers are talking about and what the readers of that blog say about the book. - Check what books are selling well online at sites such as Amazon. If there are a lot of copies already listed for sale second hand, it s not a good idea to try and resell that book. - See which text books are used and popular at schools near you. You can usually find wanted ads through school newsletters or classifieds. You can also find out book list for various courses then keep your eye out for those books. Personally I have found text books, finance/business, cooking and parenting have sold best. When it has come to finance books I have found it the better it sold originally the easier it was to resell as most people keep popular finance books. If you have specialist knowledge in certain areas this can really help when sourcing books as you might know more about which books are popular in your area of expertise and their prices, even if they are no longer in print. I come from a hair and beauty background and have found quite a few books I have been able to buy for cheap and resell as they only people who would really know their value would be other hairdressers and beauticians. Many of the most popular titles I have sold are no longer in print, but were expensive when they were available, so not many people purchased them originally. I knew which books my teachers and bosses loved, making it easier to find books I knew were being recommended and therefore searched for online.
Where to Source Your Books I started with selling off books I already owned plus books for friends and family. Once I realised how easy it was to do and how much I could make, I started looking for books to buy and resell. The places I have used with great success have been: - Second hand/thrift or op shops. I can often get books for under $1. I look in the bargain basement area or buy a lot of books at once and ask how much for the lot. Often they are so overwhelmed with books, they will sell them cheaply. I also look when sales are on. At times there have been fill a bag with books for $xx or 50% off everything sales. - Garage Sales. You can get real bargains at garage/yard sales, often as low as 10cents, especially if you are buying a bulk lot. Be friendly when you go to sales, don t expect a discount. Whilst most people are negotiable, they might not want to sell for as low as you want. Know what you are willing to pay, negotiate politely and if they won t come down to what you want, be prepared to walk away. - Online. I have bought books from one site and resold on another. One particular book I purchased for $25, which is a lot to pay for a book, but the RRP is over $100 (which I knew), it is a hard to get book and I resold it for $85. A little more research is usually required to do this successfully, but it can be done. Classified sites are often good places to find bulk lots of books for a very low price too. Size Matters When I first started selling books I listed what I had, some of which were rather large books. I realised quickly the expense of posting large books and that sometimes it might not be worth it, so when I started buying books to resell I went for smaller books. I try to go for A5 or smaller so they fit in an envelope easily. If I go A4 it needs to be slim enough to fit in an envelope also and not many are. Some sites charge extra postage for you, which is often more than it costs to post slim books in A4 or A5 size, so you can make a slight profit on the postage. If you are selling on other sites where you can choose your postage you can make your listing stand out by offering free postage as it is under $2 to post slim books. Where to Sell There are numerous places you can sell books. What type of books you are selling will determine where is best to sell them. Text books can often be resold through schools/universities usually through their newsletters. Many have systems in place to sell second hand books as it assists current students to pay for everything they need.
Other books can be sold through - ebay You will need to write up a listing, get a picture, get PayPal if you don t already, then pay a fee on the listing. If you check completed listings you can see if it is worth listing your book on ebay. For more info on listing on ebay, check this article How to Sell On ebay. - Amazon Selling on Amazon is quick and easy. Look up the book you want to sell, click on sell yours, list it accurately, and once it sells post it, then Amazon pay you, minus their fees. Check postage before listing, as posting from Australia to USA is very expensive, but if you live in the USA this is an easy way to sell your books. - Fishpond has an Australian and New Zealand site. It is much like Amazon, but since books are more expensive in the Australia you can usually get a much higher price. They add in $4.99 for postage but it is added to your total before fees come out. All you need to do is search for your book, click on sell yours, then they will email you when your item has sold. You need to click the link in the email to confirm you have posted it within 3 days, and then you will be paid within 2 weeks. They used to be the main way I sold books, but in recent times I have had a lot of issues with them, but they are still an option. I wrote about all the issues I have had with them here. I do know of others who have never had an issue so decided to keep them as an option. - Craigslist I live in Australia so have never used Craigslist, as it is only fairly new here but have had many US readers recommend it. It is a classifieds site, which is easy to list on, but you can apparently get a lot of time wasters. - Gumtree or any classified site(quicksales, trading post) or book site in your area. Look up the books you are thinking of selling, see how much they are going for, if they have sold and how many are listed. Then it is just a matter of placing an ad and waiting to see if anyone contacts you. - Facebook You can create an album with all the books you are selling and let family and friends know, or you can create a page to sell off things. I have sold from my personal page to people I know, but I know many others who have sold off their things successfully through a Facebook page. It will take a little while to set up, but can be quite profitable and is fee free. - Email Write a list with all the books you are selling, including links to them on book sites if you like, so people know exactly which books you are selling then email friends and family. I have found this method to be quite successful and easy, as they just transfer to my bank or give me cash on pick up. BookScouter is another option will allows you to type in the ISBN of the book then be matched with up to 40 different sites you can sell your book to. Then you can select to sell all your books at once. There is even an app so you can check whilst you are out scouring for books to see if it is worthwhile buying them.
Postage When you are listing ensure you add in appropriate postage costs if the site you are selling on doesn t list postage for you. You can use online postage calculators to see how much it will cost to list. Otherwise, by sticking to slim A4 and A5 books, you know it will not cost much to post, as they fit into an envelope. All I do is keep a supply of envelopes and stamps, so when a book sells I can slip it in and post it without needing to go to a post office. Keeping Track Store the books you have for sale separate from the books you are keeping. A bookshelf is best so you can easily see what you have and grab titles as they sell. Keeping them separate will prevent you from accidentally selling something you wanted to keep. Use an excel spread sheet to keep track of everything. I like to have the following columns Date of purchase Title Cost Sale price Date of sale Fees Profit This makes it easy to see what books are selling well and which books are just sitting there. It enables me to clearly see how much money I am making and which books have the highest profit margin. To keep track of the money I use a separate bank account. It is easier to keep track of money that is coming and going when it is all coming and going from one place. I prefer to keep a separate bank account for everything I sell online, so no one has my real bank account details. This helps prevent being scammed, and makes it easier to track income sources.
Some final tips Look for books in good to excellent condition. Ratty, torn or marked books are much harder to sell and unless they are rare or extremely popular they will not sell. Check closing down sales as you never know what you might find. With many recent book store closures I have picked up a lot of bargains. Check blogs for giveaways. With many blogs doing reviews and giving away copies of books they have reviewed you can win copies usually just by leaving a comment on a blog. The lower the amount of comments on the blog post the higher your chance of winning. Be prepared for books not to sell the way you expect or for as high as you expect. Whilst I have been really lucky with some books, others I expected to sell sat on the shelf for quite a while and ended up selling for less than I expected. Write accurate descriptions. Making a book sound like it is in better condition than it really is helps no one. It will give you a bad reputation and leave buyers unhappy. Note any and all marks, creases or damage to the book. If you are selling books, you could look into DVD s and CD s as well. Most sites which sell books sell them as well. I don t make as much money off them as I do books, but there are some popular titles which have been easy to source and resell. It is also a great way to cull your own collection. Price your books realistically. If you are selling a second hand copy, no matter how good the condition is do not expect to get top dollar for it. If you want to sell it quickly, price them lower than anyone else is. If you book is the only second hand copy, give a generous discount on the full retail price, to entice people to purchase it. Second hand is supposed to save money. Remember to keep track of everything so you can pay tax if necessary and not get caught out for not declaring. The cost of books, listing, a percentage of your internet costs and other things are claimable against any income you make selling the books, which is why accurate records are so important. Lastly, have fun with it. You can make as much or as little as you want with this little side gig. It doesn t have to be hard and with this guide, you can be up and selling books tomorrow! For more information and other guides to help you make money check out my site www.kylieofiu.com If you have any questions you can send me an email contact@kylieofiu.com or find me on twitter or Facebook. Please do not copy this and claim it as your own or try to sell it. I created it as a free resource to help people make extra money. I am happy for you to share it with anyone as long as it is still credited to me. Thank you.