You just answered a question that I’ve been trying to get the answer to for a long time. Always wondered how they were able to sell books so cheap on eBay. Thank you.
the key with books is to only do lots minimum of about 6 books a lot & Target full book sets & series and only lot similar books preferably the same author or genre!! it takes abit of time but once you have a good death pile of free & cheap books you can start making serious money bundling them up for example space book bundle kids book bundles flower book bundles, cooking bundle, baking, sewing and so on you cant make money selling individual books this is the same with cds and dvds in my opinion.. ohh also books take up loads of space haha !! easy money my partner sells books this way she don't take it serious because I sell electricals which makes the money butttt books can be found for free you just have to think outside the box!!
The sellers are actually charities that do bulk pre sorting, so they get discounts because of both of those. Then they violate the postal regulations for media mail and get paid to put the flyers in there.
Just found your video in my feed. Finally TH-cam algo gave me something I actually enjoyed watching. Keep up the good work and you earned a subscribe from me.
Hi Mack! I feel the pain about selling books on eBay. We started as book sellers on eBay in January 1999, so we've seen the trends. The books we used to sell in that $30-$50 range are the types you're talking about now that you can get for $10 +/- with free shipping. Makes it tough! Nowadays we sell all sorts of stuff since we can no depend on just book sales. We appreciate you doing that experiment to show what some of these sellers are doing. Makes me think I should look at "bound printed matter," because we've always depended on Media Mail. We still sell books, but these days I set the bar quite a bit higher. I want to get at least $25+ for a book now. You should see how many books we have in our storage unit! Anyway, that was an informative video, and I just subscribed! Nice job!
You can't get a bound printed matter permit without signing an expensive service contract with the post office, which is out of reach of most small business (and out of the reach of most picker/flippers.) Amazon gets it, and Chinese sellers get their "e-packet", American small business gets the shaft.
Thank you for the kind words. They've made selling books tough for sure but at least I still run across a few good ones here and there and can make decent profit but they've ruined it for a lot of book sellers.
Great video! I just subscribed. I sell mostly books on eBay and I can tell you that it can be frustrating. The more esoteric the subject is, the more likely it is to be valuable on eBay. I had no idea about the bound printed material thing. Thanks for sharing!
You hit the nail on the head with frustrating! Luckily I still find a few that I can make some money on but in the back of my mind I know how much more money could be made if I could get true market value for the other ones. Thanks for watching!
I live in MS. Looking at addresses that I've sold to over the past few years, most addresses are in CA or TX. My shipping costs are about 20-up to 60% more than a seller in those states. So I quit trying to compete with anything that would only bring $1-2 in profit after cost, shipping, supplies, and seller fees. Instead, I focus on items that I can price at half of the Amazon price and still turn a $10 profit on rare dvds, cds, vhs or audio cassette tapes. Or $40-100 on rare books.
That's a good strategy and similar to what I was doing when I first started and was doing more bin store sourcing. Trying to be cheaper than amazon while still making enough profit to be worthwhile. I've still got a good bit of deathpile that I've been sorting through to weed out the bulk of those low dollar items.
I have wanted to know how people can sell books so cheaply for years! Now I know. Thank you! In the Better World Books package, the bookmark WAS the ad. Plus, it had a QV code, so there's more advertising. Interesting.
I just looked up the USPS rules for the 'Bound Printed Matter' and mailing books under this program is NOT legitimate! The material being sent has to be 90% matter that is of the type like catalogs or phone directories. These companies are doing this illegally and apparently the Post Office is allowing them to do so. Check into it with those two sellers you mention in your video who are flaunting breaking the rules set by the Post Office. You as an individual cannot use this unless you are mailing VERY specific material!
It covers regular, bound books as long as they are stapled/glued/stitched. It does not exclude a standard hardback or paperback book. It is useful for catalogs and phone directories because of the typical size and weight, but again, does not exclude a standard book. It would not include a spiral bound book as shown earlier in the video because that is "loose" sheets.
People collect ashtrays but there is also a big collector market for anything having to do with transportation, airplanes, trains, ships, etc. Be sure to keyword with “transportation.”
Guaranteed they’re also being paid by the companies supplying the advertising they include in the package. I worked for a huge eBay book reseller who purchased pallets of new and used books. They didn’t engage in such tactics.
Agree with several comments here. This is against USPS postal regulations. As 90% must be advertising. I wouldn't want to mess with the USPS. That's a federal offense. If they get caught by them I wouldn't want to be them
Just got this video as a suggestion. No idea what triggered it other than being subscribed to other eBay related channels. Seems good so far. Subscribed
i just sold a law dictionary on amazon that weighed 6 lbs and used the what your talking about and it cost 5.53 to ship. media mail would be about twice that price
I'm referring to the stores that sell returns, overstock and liquidation which are mostly items from amazon, but some also sell items from places like Walmart, Target, etc. They have bins similar to the Goodwill bins and after restocking them, will charge maybe $8 per item for that day. The next day, every item might be $6. The next day, $4 and so on until the price reaches $1 or .50 per item and then they restock the bins and start over.
Books are extremely tricky to deal with on eBay. If it isn’t something that’s very collectible or hard-to-find, it isn’t worth competing against the massive high-volume accounts.
You only get the best rates if you ship over 300 books from what I read. Looks like they are selling huge amts of books at very low prices to make their margins.
I just donated a bunch of almost new , high value books (on amazon) as I couldn't compete with ebay.. I would guess that company that you bought from would pay a person pennies for the books.. My big question is their overhead costs - labor, storage, etc etc. ebay fees, taxes ???
They are often so-called "charities" and as such get sub minimum wage/free/subsidized labor, special tax breaks, they get special eBay fees, special postage rate, etc. All an absolute slap in the face to small businesses like ours.
I never knew that was the case in usa, its the same in uk. I sometimes sell books on ebay but some books are more expensive with them sellers if there know its worth money. I do mostly job lots or look for old books and books with no bar codes,old history books thrillers horror are quite good sellers. Fav is maths and university books. good video have you ever picked up any vaulable books?
I've never picked up anything worth more than about $50. My friend Kim has sold quite a few in the $100-200 range. I don't usually spend much time on books but she does so she gets lots of valuable ones.
I just saw your video on my main page and enjoy your content, I would like to check out your ebay store becuase I want to get that Cape Cod Book. I use those type of book for my business. I am from the Bayous of Louisiana and have been living in Mass for the last 4 1/2 years.
@@TrailerTrashFlips Just a good idea for you. It would be good if you were to put your ebay Store Link in your Channel Page. I went through all your videos and Your TY Page and that is why I asked about your store. This could get you some Viewer Sales as well.
Gotcha. How do you like living there vs La? I've often thought about moving north just a little, possibly Tennessee to escape some of this heat and humidity and trying to stay out of too much snow. My parents are still alive so I won't be away from them but beyond that I don't have anything tying me here.
Good video...i sell books, and it is a race to the bottom. I cannot compete with the charity book sellers. Your video is informative as to how they are able to do the shipping magic....
Can you imagine listing all these things individually on eBay no thank you! Liquidate everything and learn to FBA Amazon bud. I don't have to inventory anything! I make phone calls and make 10 listing on Amazon for 10 sku's
We have these types of sellers in the UK too. They get their books for free from charity shops who can't sell them. They often sell them cheaper than the actual cost of postage with free shipping too.
@TrailerTrashFlips I was born and raised in Baton Rouge. I moved away in 1986 and returned home in 1991 due to my dad becoming ill and left again in 1996 to reside in New Orleans and lost everything in Hurricane Katrina and have been in Georgia since 2006!
I've wondered for a while how people people sell books on a Ebay and still make a profit. I come across thousands of books every month, but never pick them up since I could not compete with the insanely low prices of other sellers.
We could all make money if they would just sell them at market value but they've completely ruined it. I still run across some books that they don't have and are worth selling but not many.
Someone is getting ripped off buying some of your stuff with such markups. I sell locally and if I make $15-$20 profit on something I paid $20 for I'm good with that. I don't deal in buying items for $1 or $2 then trying to sell for $10-$15. Don't rip people off. And why tell what you paid for the stuff. Buyers beware of this selling selling you $1 items for over $7 lol. Suckers born every minute.
If someones buys something I have for sale, no one is *forcing* them to buy it so no one is getting ripped off if someone *chooses* to buy something I have for sale. You're focusing on markup which is *not* a metric of what an item is worth. If you were to buy a brand new car for $1, it isn't worth less just because you only paid a dollar for it. I research every singe item and list them at market value. Selling locally as you do is a completely different scenario than selling on a platform like ebay. Maybe you don't realize that most ebay sellers are paying selling costs between 35 -60% between ebay fees, cost of goods, and packing supplies, not to mention having to pay taxes on all that. Let's look at a scenario. If I were to buy an item for $20 and sell it for $40, as you have said you do, my ebay selling costs are about 45% plus and average of .75 shipping supplies. So $40 sales price, minus $20 cost of goods, minus approximately $10 ebay selling costs minus .75 packaging leaves a net profit of around $9. Doesn't look too good does it. And on top of that, having to source, clean, list, store, and pack those items would make it an unsubstainable business model. If I sell an item for $7 then it's probably worth $10 - $15 anywhere else and worth $7 on ebay because again, what I pay for an item has absolutely no bearing on what an item is worth. The way you sell locally is not the same as selling on ebay so maybe you'll not be so quick to accuse someone of "ripping people off" when you really don't know what you're talking about.
@@TrailerTrashFlips I know Ebay takes a percent. I also ship items out but I never charge any shipping cost on my end just whatever the delivery co. would charge. I need boxes, peanuts or whatever packaging materials to send some stuff but I don't charge for that. Let alone the gas to go to whatever delivery meathod I'm using. I'm still happy even if I make a $5 profit. I wish Ebay didn't charge so much to the customer for shipping. I'm in Canada.
![โรงเรียนห้ามรัก โดนจับได้ตาย...!! [เอิร์นไดเม่]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4u02Sbr556Q/mqdefault.jpg)
You just answered a question that I’ve been trying to get the answer to for a long time. Always wondered how they were able to sell books so cheap on eBay. Thank you.
the key with books is to only do lots minimum of about 6 books a lot & Target full book sets & series and only lot similar books preferably the same author or genre!! it takes abit of time but once you have a good death pile of free & cheap books you can start making serious money bundling them up for example space book bundle kids book bundles flower book bundles, cooking bundle, baking, sewing and so on you cant make money selling individual books this is the same with cds and dvds in my opinion.. ohh also books take up loads of space haha !! easy money my partner sells books this way she don't take it serious because I sell electricals which makes the money butttt books can be found for free you just have to think outside the box!!
Very good point!
Excellent information 👍
The sellers are actually charities that do bulk pre sorting, so they get discounts because of both of those. Then they violate the postal regulations for media mail and get paid to put the flyers in there.
Just found your video in my feed. Finally TH-cam algo gave me something I actually enjoyed watching. Keep up the good work and you earned a subscribe from me.
Thank you for the kind words and the sub, I really appreciate it!
Hi Mack! I feel the pain about selling books on eBay. We started as book sellers on eBay in January 1999, so we've seen the trends. The books we used to sell in that $30-$50 range are the types you're talking about now that you can get for $10 +/- with free shipping. Makes it tough! Nowadays we sell all sorts of stuff since we can no depend on just book sales.
We appreciate you doing that experiment to show what some of these sellers are doing. Makes me think I should look at "bound printed matter," because we've always depended on Media Mail.
We still sell books, but these days I set the bar quite a bit higher. I want to get at least $25+ for a book now. You should see how many books we have in our storage unit!
Anyway, that was an informative video, and I just subscribed! Nice job!
You can't get a bound printed matter permit without signing an expensive service contract with the post office, which is out of reach of most small business (and out of the reach of most picker/flippers.) Amazon gets it, and Chinese sellers get their "e-packet", American small business gets the shaft.
@@johnathin0061892 Thanks for that info! Maybe that's why we never heard of it before! Guess we'll just keep on with what we have! Thanks again!
Thank you for the kind words. They've made selling books tough for sure but at least I still run across a few good ones here and there and can make decent profit but they've ruined it for a lot of book sellers.
Great video! I just subscribed. I sell mostly books on eBay and I can tell you that it can be frustrating. The more esoteric the subject is, the more likely it is to be valuable on eBay. I had no idea about the bound printed material thing. Thanks for sharing!
You hit the nail on the head with frustrating! Luckily I still find a few that I can make some money on but in the back of my mind I know how much more money could be made if I could get true market value for the other ones. Thanks for watching!
So, yeah... BPM is another one of those "services" that punishes smaller businesses by requiring high volume sales. Good job, Uncle Sam!
I live in MS. Looking at addresses that I've sold to over the past few years, most addresses are in CA or TX. My shipping costs are about 20-up to 60% more than a seller in those states. So I quit trying to compete with anything that would only bring $1-2 in profit after cost, shipping, supplies, and seller fees. Instead, I focus on items that I can price at half of the Amazon price and still turn a $10 profit on rare dvds, cds, vhs or audio cassette tapes. Or $40-100 on rare books.
That's a good strategy and similar to what I was doing when I first started and was doing more bin store sourcing. Trying to be cheaper than amazon while still making enough profit to be worthwhile. I've still got a good bit of deathpile that I've been sorting through to weed out the bulk of those low dollar items.
I have wanted to know how people can sell books so cheaply for years! Now I know. Thank you!
In the Better World Books package, the bookmark WAS the ad. Plus, it had a QV code, so there's more advertising. Interesting.
Very good point!
I just looked up the USPS rules for the 'Bound Printed Matter' and mailing books under this program is NOT legitimate! The material being sent has to be 90% matter that is of the type like catalogs or phone directories. These companies are doing this illegally and apparently the Post Office is allowing them to do so. Check into it with those two sellers you mention in your video who are flaunting breaking the rules set by the Post Office. You as an individual cannot use this unless you are mailing VERY specific material!
It covers regular, bound books as long as they are stapled/glued/stitched. It does not exclude a standard hardback or paperback book. It is useful for catalogs and phone directories because of the typical size and weight, but again, does not exclude a standard book. It would not include a spiral bound book as shown earlier in the video because that is "loose" sheets.
@@sumwattcorrect. My FBM books ship Bound Printed all the time.
@@sumwatt If it covers regular bound books then why isn't the general public allowed to ship books via "Bound Printed Matter"?
@@robsomething4435 What are FBM books?
Same here in Australia, you can't compete with a big book resellers cheers Graham
People collect ashtrays but there is also a big collector market for anything having to do with transportation, airplanes, trains, ships, etc. Be sure to keyword with “transportation.”
Great advice and I will put that in the listing.
Guaranteed they’re also being paid by the companies supplying the advertising they include in the package. I worked for a huge eBay book reseller who purchased pallets of new and used books. They didn’t engage in such tactics.
Agree with several comments here. This is against USPS postal regulations. As 90% must be advertising. I wouldn't want to mess with the USPS. That's a federal offense. If they get caught by them I wouldn't want to be them
Just got this video as a suggestion. No idea what triggered it other than being subscribed to other eBay related channels.
Seems good so far.
Subscribed
Thank you, I appreciate it!
i just sold a law dictionary on amazon that weighed 6 lbs and used the what your talking about and it cost 5.53 to ship. media mail would be about twice that price
I feel your struggles. Hang in there, every job has these moments. Reseller in my opinion just has a lot less! I subbed hope it helps out.
Every sub helps and I greatly appreciate it!
My first camera was a K 1000. It's a great camera!
What exactly is the "bin store" your talking about? Only thing I have heard of is the Goodwill bins. Thanks
I'm referring to the stores that sell returns, overstock and liquidation which are mostly items from amazon, but some also sell items from places like Walmart, Target, etc. They have bins similar to the Goodwill bins and after restocking them, will charge maybe $8 per item for that day. The next day, every item might be $6. The next day, $4 and so on until the price reaches $1 or .50 per item and then they restock the bins and start over.
Books are extremely tricky to deal with on eBay. If it isn’t something that’s very collectible or hard-to-find, it isn’t worth competing against the massive high-volume accounts.
Very true. I still find a few that they don't have that I can make some money on but not a lot.
I would love to figure out how to get an affiliate mailer or 2. Using Ebay buyers as an audience instead of an online audience.
Where do you find the chumps that buy your junk. I need chumps.
You only get the best rates if you ship over 300 books from what I read. Looks like they are selling huge amts of books at very low prices to make their margins.
I just donated a bunch of almost new , high value books (on amazon) as I couldn't compete with ebay.. I would guess that company that you bought from would pay a person pennies for the books.. My big question is their overhead costs - labor, storage, etc etc. ebay fees, taxes ???
They are often so-called "charities" and as such get sub minimum wage/free/subsidized labor, special tax breaks, they get special eBay fees, special postage rate, etc. All an absolute slap in the face to small businesses like ours.
I can vouch for that advertisement deal...one came with the book I ordered las week!
I just threw it away...nothing but junk mail, really!
I never knew that was the case in usa, its the same in uk. I sometimes sell books on ebay but some books are more expensive with them sellers if there know its worth money. I do mostly job lots or look for old books and books with no bar codes,old history books thrillers horror are quite good sellers. Fav is maths and university books. good video have you ever picked up any vaulable books?
I've never picked up anything worth more than about $50. My friend Kim has sold quite a few in the $100-200 range. I don't usually spend much time on books but she does so she gets lots of valuable ones.
You should put your eBay store link under the description on your TH-cam channel. Might increase your sales.
You're right! I did put it in the description of the last few videos and plan on adding it in the rest of them. 👍
You want to pay over $7 for something he paid only $1 for? Not me
I just saw your video on my main page and enjoy your content, I would like to check out your ebay store becuase I want to get that Cape Cod Book. I use those type of book for my business. I am from the Bayous of Louisiana and have been living in Mass for the last 4 1/2 years.
What part of Louisiana are you from? I haven't listed the book yet but will within the next few days. My store is flippinmack. Thanks for watching!
@@TrailerTrashFlips I was born in Terrebonne Parish and Stayed with my Grandmother everey Summer in Chauvin
@@TrailerTrashFlips Just a good idea for you. It would be good if you were to put your ebay Store Link in your Channel Page. I went through all your videos and Your TY Page and that is why I asked about your store. This could get you some Viewer Sales as well.
Thank you for the good idea and I will link it there. 👍
Gotcha. How do you like living there vs La? I've often thought about moving north just a little, possibly Tennessee to escape some of this heat and humidity and trying to stay out of too much snow. My parents are still alive so I won't be away from them but beyond that I don't have anything tying me here.
Good video...i sell books, and it is a race to the bottom. I cannot compete with the charity book sellers. Your video is informative as to how they are able to do the shipping magic....
Thanks for watching!
all my books are collectable or antique, condition is key, as is tracking.
The Pentax is worth at least $100. I've sold several of them working for more than that.
Thanks for letting me know. I'm going to list it this week and will definitely look into it further. 👍
Can you imagine listing all these things individually on eBay no thank you! Liquidate everything and learn to FBA Amazon bud. I don't have to inventory anything! I make phone calls and make 10 listing on Amazon for 10 sku's
yeah man I just stay clear of 99.9% of books.
We have these types of sellers in the UK too. They get their books for free from charity shops who can't sell them. They often sell them cheaper than the actual cost of postage with free shipping too.
I had to subscribe just because of your channel's name! LOL
🤣🤣🤣
Mystery Solved !
That Cape Cod glass book will sell. I’m actually tempted to get it myself.
Or is it that Amazon is just so expensive?
It could be that amazon is so expensive. Amazon takes a much bigger chunk from sellers than ebay does so things *have* to sell for more there.
Hey
Just happened upon your channel! I am from Baton Rouge La.
I sell on Ebay too
Awesome, glad to have someone local here. Thanks for watching! 👍
@TrailerTrashFlips I was born and raised in Baton Rouge. I moved away in 1986 and returned home in 1991 due to my dad becoming ill and left again in 1996 to reside in New Orleans and lost everything in Hurricane Katrina and have been in Georgia since 2006!
You went viral. Now you will make it out of the trailer park.
That's my goal! 🤣🤣🤣
Hello from Germany 🙂
Hello there, thanks for watching!
I've wondered for a while how people people sell books on a Ebay and still make a profit. I come across thousands of books every month, but never pick them up since I could not compete with the insanely low prices of other sellers.
We could all make money if they would just sell them at market value but they've completely ruined it. I still run across some books that they don't have and are worth selling but not many.
Someone is getting ripped off buying some of your stuff with such markups. I sell locally and if I make $15-$20 profit on something I paid $20 for I'm good with that. I don't deal in buying items for $1 or $2 then trying to sell for $10-$15. Don't rip people off. And why tell what you paid for the stuff. Buyers beware of this selling selling you $1 items for over $7 lol. Suckers born every minute.
If someones buys something I have for sale, no one is *forcing* them to buy it so no one is getting ripped off if someone *chooses* to buy something I have for sale. You're focusing on markup which is *not* a metric of what an item is worth. If you were to buy a brand new car for $1, it isn't worth less just because you only paid a dollar for it. I research every singe item and list them at market value. Selling locally as you do is a completely different scenario than selling on a platform like ebay. Maybe you don't realize that most ebay sellers are paying selling costs between 35 -60% between ebay fees, cost of goods, and packing supplies, not to mention having to pay taxes on all that. Let's look at a scenario. If I were to buy an item for $20 and sell it for $40, as you have said you do, my ebay selling costs are about 45% plus and average of .75 shipping supplies. So $40 sales price, minus $20 cost of goods, minus approximately $10 ebay selling costs minus .75 packaging leaves a net profit of around $9. Doesn't look too good does it. And on top of that, having to source, clean, list, store, and pack those items would make it an unsubstainable business model.
If I sell an item for $7 then it's probably worth $10 - $15 anywhere else and worth $7 on ebay because again, what I pay for an item has absolutely no bearing on what an item is worth. The way you sell locally is not the same as selling on ebay so maybe you'll not be so quick to accuse someone of "ripping people off" when you really don't know what you're talking about.
@@TrailerTrashFlips I know Ebay takes a percent. I also ship items out but I never charge any shipping cost on my end just whatever the delivery co. would charge. I need boxes, peanuts or whatever packaging materials to send some stuff but I don't charge for that. Let alone the gas to go to whatever delivery meathod I'm using. I'm still happy even if I make a $5 profit. I wish Ebay didn't charge so much to the customer for shipping. I'm in Canada.