Making Money Selling Books on the Internet
How many of us have loads of books at home just lying around? Well, one solution is to sell off your unwanted books on the Internet. This is a very easy process and can also be quite profitable.The first outlet to sell books on the Internet is EBay. EBay is a great way to sell your product because you will reach millions of people and those people enjoy the thrill of bidding. The downside of EBay is that you need to pay a listing fee and if the book does not sell, you lose that fee. If you re-list the book and it does sell, EBay will refund your second listing fee. However, if it still does not sell a second time, you will again lose the fee and this cuts down or eliminates the profits. There is also a fee on EBay after you sell the item. Another problem that is important to consider is that you will have to rely on the bidder to follow through with payment. If they don’t, you will receive your final fee back, but the listing fee is still gone.
An even better way to sell your books online is through Half.com. They are owned by EBay as well, but they do not have a listing time limit and they do not charge an upfront listing fee. You can list an entire inventory of books in a very short period of time. Books are listed by their ISBN numbers or listing codes. The seller then decides the condition of the book and then a suggested price is given by half.com for selling that particular item.
When the book sells, payment which includes shipping is collected by Half.com. They receive a 15% commission and they then send you a direct deposit twice a month for the remaining amount of your sales. This means that there is no hassle collecting payment from the buyer and no fees from paypal or listing the item. Once an item sells, Half.com will send an e-mail with all the information you need to package and ship the book. (most books ship by media mail) It is a great way to earn a little extra cash extra month without a lot of extra effort. There are other items such as videos and games that can be sold on Half.com as well.
I do want to include a few pointers should you try to list on Half.com. First, it is important to not always rely on the suggested price given by Half.com. I like to search for the book and see what others are selling theirs for and then go just slightly below their price. After all, my goal is to sell the books. Second, I go into my inventory about once a month and check my prices. New books are listed all the time and if my price becomes the high price, I will lower it. Finally, keep good records so that you don’t get buyers claiming you didn’t send the item. Out of 1000 sales, I have only had two people claim that I didn’t mail the product. The first one went away after I gave them the date, time, and location from which the item was mailed. The second one got their money refunded by half.com and I was charged back for that item. It is rare, but does happen. I have had much less problems with sales through Half.com than E-bay.
Selling books online is a great way to make extra money. One can find books at thrift shops, yard sales, or just around the house causing clutter. Any way you obtain them, a good profit can be made by selling them online.