I drove up to Charlotte to visit an unadvertised book sale at the Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC). There were about 5 branches of their libraries that were having sales, however, I only made it to two of them.
I spent $35.50 on 38 books, and I found this gem: A book titled, Rock Recall: Annotated Readings in American Popular Music Emergence of Rock and Roll to the Demise of Woodstock Nation.
The price spread on Amazon is fairly large with the lowest “acceptable” price at $85 and the lowest “very good” price at close to $1000. The lowest new price is $1310. There is also a collectible seller selling a “very good” at $95.
There are no other FBA sellers and only 17 sellers total. The rank is 2.3 million. I’m going to try a crazy pricing strategy at $997 and see what happens.
Any thoughts on how to price this? What would you do? I'm listing this as “very good condition”. Please leave a comment below.
Did you consider the other “format” that is available?
http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Recall-Annotated-Emergence-Woodstock/dp/0536672946/ref=tmm_pap_title_0
It’s just “paperback” whereas yours is “Paperback, June 1993”, they both are shown as being printed in 1993 but with different ISBNs. Anyway this other format has much lower prices and a sales rank just over 1 million – I personally would factor this in when pricing.
Yes, I saw that other edition as well. I thought that was a bit odd that they both were paperbacks printed in 1993 with different ISBN numbers. At the time of purchase, that rank was 4 million, so I didn’t worry about it. Now, I see it’s 1 million.
But the other format does not have any FBA sellers either….
Looking at the diversity of prices and checking with Terapeak, I think your price for this time of year is appropriately placed, although I personally would have listed at $995. Keeping an eye on sales of this item, if unsold come January and no sales at all, I would keep it at that price until March. If a sale is made on one of the books at a lower price I would adjust my price from where the sold unit went checking with Terapeak. Also, I would enquire with some of my rare book dealer friends and ask them about this book for their opinion on pricing.
Phil, thanks for the info regarding Terapeak. I’ve never used it, but I may have to look into it.
I would go in between that big gap of the $100 to $400 at about $349.
Also, with books of this value, I prefer to self fulfill and not worry abot Amazon damaging or losing it.
Scott, good points. Amazon has lost one of my expensive books ($200+) before, but they did refund me within a couple days. Also, I think buyers would be more comfortable buying a $997 book directly from Amazon. They would be getting the book in two days plus a 30 day money back guarantee with no questions asked.
I have this problem often… I do not yet use FBA though. I deal mainly in children’s books and there are too many choices for buyers that make no sense… Too many editions listed and huge variations in price. I would probably list it for $150. as I like to see quicker sales and want to stay competitive. I think those over the top prices are either placeholders or completely trying to rip off the buyer.
How long do you want to hold on to it? If your ISBN ends in a 4, there is a “new” available for ~$1,775 and a “good” for ~$1,350″ – but how long will you have to hold a 1993 PB at those prices? If this is your book, $995 is not a crazy price. But if your ISBN ends in a 6, there is a “new” available for under $300, which would mean yours should be priced below that – say $250.
The ISBN ends in a 4. I’m willing to hold on to it for a year (or so) to see if it sells at $997.
Great post! I am interested in seeing how you do with this book and what, if any, adjustments you make to the price and when. Please keep us posted.
Thank you, Serena. I always appreciate your comments.
Coming to this thread 5 months into the future. Now, it looks like the market has really changed for this book. Most new copies are in the 230-300$ range.
What happened? How did a book lose 500% of its value in just a few months?
My theory is that a new, green FBA seller found a copy of the book at a book sale, and wanted the quick fast buck, so they listed it much lower than everybody else. And that started a race to the bottom, which ended at $232 and change. I see that the seller who has that lowball figure has only 69% positive feedback. In school, that’s just about a failing grade. Of course the top seller, at $1260 and change, has only a 75% feedback. That’s not so good either.
Nathan, I’m glad you hung on to your figure but the used market sunk pretty bad, too. I just hope this isn’t a model for all the other books on FBA. Because that is scary.
It also makes me wonder why can’t sellers and their repricing software work together for a ‘race to the top’ – if we all did this, we would make more on each sale. Anyway, just some thoughts.
Hi Joe,
Yes, I’ve been watching the price swings on this listing as well. I think some of the higher priced books are just prone to big price swings. Since, like you said, a new seller can come in with a low ball price. This doesn’t usually happen for low to medium priced books though.
Curious as to final outcome. It has been almost a year since this was posted. Was it ever sold? I checked Amazon and there is only one FBA seller with a Used – Good at $39.95 with the top merchant fulfilled at $270.64.
I believe I sold it for around $40. Amazon sent me an email and said it was priced to high, so I changed it.