Well it starts to get difficult at prices that low. When you have a £2.50 slightly larger just over 250g paperback with postage included because it's quicker to list that way, postage is £1.63, padded bag 12p, PayPal fees 28.5p, 5p eBid fees (gallery), comes to £2.09, factor in time and packing and it starts to look like it really isn't worth it. Any penny book over 500g isn't worth listing at all (£2.08, and £2.49 postage second class), unless you have a PPI account and are prepared to work for pennies profit. It's very easy to slip into loss without realising it when listing books.
I've always avoided the 1p selling spot - even though I'm currently using a pro account so sell on Amz without paying the per item fees - as a one man band (you know what I mean!) it just isn't economical, as Hazel says. I think I do have a couple that are as low as 45p over there, but usually I don't drop below around the pound. I've put my dead cheap, dead common bestseller bargains on here, since anything they make is virtually all mine to keep. I find the whole market's just really odd at the moment though. Much less predictable than this time last year!
Welcome to Bearsden and BBooks. Why not tell us a little about your shops. Andy http://uk.ebid.net/stores/BrilliantB...deos-Magazines
Oh yes, without the Pro-Merchant account on Amazon it's not worth listing thicker (packet) penny books at all, since you only get £1.41 after all the fees are taken off, which is less than the postage in 99% of cases. It's not really worth it for the slightly heavier large letter sized ones either, since 90p out of that is a huge chunk, take out the packaging cost as well, and you're down to pennies in profit.
I also sell (well try to) on Amazon and flatly refuse to list anything at 1p. I ain't a pro seller so have to pay the massive fees. I don't list a book if there are pages of 1p listings. I have also started to change my listings - where necessary to make sure I don't have to post very heavy books out of the UK. Still very very quiet and the few buyers I have had have not given me any FB.
I don't sell anything heavy on Amazon international either, unless it's very very expensive. Actually I don't sell anything heavy on Amazon at all unless it's expensive, the postal cost just isn't worth it for most books. I shall never forget the nearly new Wine book I sold for £23, by the time the fees and the postage was taken off I ended up with about £5. It also needed careful packing because it was very big and heavy.
Yes me too, I often restrict myself to UK or Europe only (it's the long-haul that gets really pricey I find). I generally try to avoid heavy books at all, as any postage on them on any site tends to put people off so much, but if it's something scarce or valuable then I'll take the chance. I've had some luck selling large reference sets to people who come and collect - even since I moved down here to the wilds of Cornwall.
I'm just wondering what Amazon are going to do in April - when the cost of post traditionally goes up. As I have read else where they have not increased the cost of postage to buyers in approx. 2 years and the sellers are obviously having to make up the (sometimes large) difference.
I'd quite like the result to be the penny books vanishing! While I'm hypocritical enough to buy them if they represent the best total price available, I dislike they way they devalue the book market.
I know sometimes you see a book for 1p and the next one up (no matter what condition) is pounds more. I know sellers have different ways of posting books but it is very annoying especially when it concerns rather large books.
