For this blog post I’m going to document the sales rank at the time of purchase and see how long it will take a certain book to sell. I’m hoping this case study will shed some light on the Amazon sales rank.
Last October I went to a bookstore and bought 65 books. I documented the sales rank at the time of purchase. I will list the date purchase, cost of book, sales rank, number of days until sale, and sale price.
I’ll start with the worst ranking books first. All the books arrived in Amazon’s warehouse on October 29th, 2014. As of March 2015, 44 of the books have sold.
Title: Handbook of Lipoprotein Testing
Sales Rank: 2,925,635
Number of days until sale: 62
Sale Price: $47.98
Title: The Wilsonian Century
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 2,572,376
Number of days until sale: 104
Sale Price: $9.95
Title: The Baby Boomers Grow Up
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 2,115,590
Number of days until sale: 18
Sale Price: $33.26
Title: The Recurring Dark Ages
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 1,872,428
Number of days until sale: 73
Sale Price: $22.84
Title: On Human Diversity
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 1,858,612
Number of days until sale: 69
Sale Price: $11.99
Title: Goals Into Gold
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 1,756,752
Number of days until sale: 116
Sale Price: $19.45
Title: Body of Knowledge Review Series 2nd Edition Patient Care Systems
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 1,485,781
Number of days until sale: 83
Sale Price: $38.31
Title: Expulsion of the Palestinians
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 1,411,800
Number of days until sale: 27
Sale Price: $18.99
Title: Pierre Molinier
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 1,317,640
Number of days until sale: 55
Sale Price: $42.99
Title: American Government
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 1,292,550
Number of days until sale: 21
Sale Price: $23.03
Title: Lyme Disease
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 1,268,965
Number of days until sale: 132
Sale Price: $24.98
Title: The Libertarian Illusion
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 1,252,309
Number of days until sale: 77
Sale Price: $13.88
Title: Ecological Principles of Agriculture
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 1,101,282
Number of days until sale: 55
Sale Price: $53.53
Title: ARRL's VHF Digital Handbook
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 1,078,982
Number of days until sale: 109
Sale Price: $24.78
Title: Justice Interruptus
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 1,075,701
Number of days until sale: 68
Sale Price: $16.99
Title: Judicial Clerkships
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 962,166
Number of days until sale: 15
Sale Price: $30.93
Title: City Bountiful
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 925,605
Number of days until sale: 32
Sale Price: $9.95
Title: Standard Catalog of American Cars
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 902,725
Number of days until sale: 24
Sale Price: $43.6
Title: Kaplan Medical National Dental Hygienist Licensure Exam
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 893,690
Number of days until sale: 5
Sale Price: $263.12
Title: Bad Men Do what Good Men Dream
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 878,001
Number of days until sale: 99
Sale Price: $38.98
Title: Anesthesia Secrets
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 836,860
Number of days until sale: 51
Sale Price: $13.26
Title: Practical Statistics for Environmental and Biological Scientists
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 833,908
Number of days until sale: 7
Sale Price: $12.85
Title: The New Transnational Activism
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 771,592
Number of days until sale: 73
Sale Price: $9.95
Title: Nutrition for a Healthy Mouth
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 703,261
Number of days until sale: 25
Sale Price: $30.98
Title: Modern Engineering Statistics
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 677,724
Number of days until sale: 62
Sale Price: $64.99
Title: Portraits of Homoeopathic Medicines, Vol.3
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 632,214
Number of days until sale: 24
Sale Price: $24
Title: SPSS Demystified
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 622,384
Number of days until sale: 5
Sale Price: $18.97
Title: Intellectual Property
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 560,129
Number of days until sale: 5
Sale Price: $23.22
Title: The Disappearing Center
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 553,836
Number of days until sale: 12
Sale Price: $14.93
Title: Twice Dead
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 551,367
Number of days until sale: 37
Sale Price: $13.74
Title: Managing Bipolar Disorder
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 480,448
Number of days until sale: 24
Sale Price: $20.77
Title: Student Workbook For Emergency Care And Transportation Of The Sick And Injured, Tenth Edition
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 450,838
Number of days until sale: 6
Sale Price: $58.59
Title: Who Rules America? Challenges to Corporate and Class Dominance
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 444,757
Number of days until sale: 16
Sale Price: $13.03
Title: The Reluctant Welfare State
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 389,756
Number of days until sale: 81
Sale Price: $9.95
Title: Unmasking Administrative Evil
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 235,056
Number of days until sale: 1
Sale Price: $21.13
Title: MUDPACKS AND PROZAC
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 206,912
Number of days until sale: 7
Sale Price: $27.53
Title: Watchful Care
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 199,328
Number of days until sale: 6
Sale Price: $45.05
Title: Stealth Democracy
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 109,548
Number of days until sale: 63
Sale Price: $15.62
Title: Examples & Explanations
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 79,468
Number of days until sale: 5
Sale Price: $27.33
Title: A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 78,431
Number of days until sale: 13
Sale Price: $35.75
Title: Blume and Steiker's Death Penalty Stories
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 58,238
Number of days until sale: 19
Sale Price: $28.19
Title: From the Eye of the Storm
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 36,348
Number of days until sale: 38
Sale Price: $20.61
Title: The Social Transformation of American Medicine
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 30,053
Number of days until sale: 70
Sale Price: $9.95
Title: Eckert Animal Physiology
Sales Rank (at time of purchase): 9,269
Number of days until sale: 23
Sale Price: $23.98
Nathan,
Thank you so much for the post, very, very enlightening.
Cool post. I’m interested to know what your sales rank threshold is for starting to price a book at a flat $3.99 above the lowest merchant fulfilled offer. This would definitely help to read more into this data, which is very interesting and something I’ve wanted to start tracking myself.
Thanks Peter. I don’t really price based on the sales rank, but that’s definitely something that I will consider.
Nathan,
Thanks so much for the data, really appreciate it. The avg. price of the books you sold was over $25! Wow! I researched every book on you list and it was tremendously helpful. Thank you so much.
Thanks Thayer. I’m glad you found the info useful!
Great stuff keep it coming!
Thank you!
I don’t see the cost of the books you bought Just the sale price
The average buy cost at this bookstore was $6.48. Total profit to date is $635.14.
Hi there,
What is the highest rank you usually purchase for resale on FBA? Do you stay in the 1 millions?
Thanks,
Cora
Hi Cora,
It depends on the value of the book. If I can make a $20+ profit, I may buy books up to 5 million or so.
Nathan,
Wondering what the rankings of the books were that haven’t sold or didn’t sell during that time were? Would you be willing to share or maybe post an update as I am sure more have sold since? Thanks!
I sure appreciate your research and tracking all of this! I’m rethinking some of my purchasing parameters.
Great blog!
Christy
Hi Christy,
That’s a great idea about listing the rankings of the books that haven’t sold. I will update this post soon and let you know.
Very interesting, I have only been buying books below 1 million, sometimes up to 1.5 million depending on the profit, but this may have changed my strategy. What is your minimum profit per book for you to buy it? I go for a minimum of $5.00, but my average book sells for about $21.00
Hi Steve,
I try to aim for a minimum profit of $4-5 per book.
I really appreciate the tips you share, thanks so much. A question: Do you believe that a person could make a respectable salary (money for “extras” is what I’m hoping to earn) selling children’s books on Amazon, etc.?
Hi Nathan,
Thank you for this very informative post. So happy to see such high ranked books actually being bought and for such good prices. How often do you reprice your books? With high ranked books, do you just set the price and let it ride until it sells, or do you try to stay competitive with the lowest FBA seller? Also, I’m curious about the books from this batch that haven’t sold yet. Any ideas why those haven’t been bought yet? Is it pricing, more competition, or is it some other factor that’s likely making them stick around? Selling 44 out of 67 is very impressive, by the way. Shows that you know how to pick (and price) great books.
Hello,
I price my books once a day using Repriceit.com. I really don’t do anything fancy with my pricing. Most of the time I’m just matching the low priced seller for my condition.
Many of the books that I bought are long-tail so it will take a while to sell the rest. I will try to update this blog post with more of the books that have sold and some information on why some of the books haven’t sold.
Great Post.
Would it be possible to include the starting price next time? For example I think you started the price of Handbook of ‘Lipoprotein Testing’ at $78.99 but eventually lowered and sold it at $47.98.
Do you think the threshold was around $50 and it would have sold at $47.98 right away if it was priced at that amount in the beginning?
Thanks