Book Sale Case Study in St. Louis, Missouri

My next book sale adventure led me to St. Louis, Missouri.  I wanted to check their big annual (one million books) book sale.  I met my Dad and Step Mom there for the preview night on Friday, August 16^th.  We stayed for about 3 hours, and I ended buying 71 books for $70.50.

Setting
City: St. Louis, Missouri
Date:  August 16, 2013
Place:  YMCA
Advertised on: BookSaleFinder.com

Prices
They were individually priced.

Equipment
Dell Axim X51 PDA with a Socket Scanner Attached.   The Neatoscan software was installed on the PDA.

Purchase Numbers
Books Purchased: 71
Cost of Books: $70.50
UPS Inbound Shipping: $15.79
Total Costs: $86.29

Time Spent at Sale
3 Hours

Sales Results for the First Month (August 31st, 2013)
Books Sold: 3
Percentage of Books Sold: 4%
Sales Revenue (after all of Amazon Fees): $51.99
Profit to Date: $-36.26

Sales Results for the Second Month (September 2013)
Books Sold: 22
Percentage of Books Sold: 31%
Sales Revenue (after all of Amazon Fees): $188.57
Profit to Date: $152.31

Sales Results for the Third Month (October 2013)
Books Sold: 5
Percentage of Books Sold: 7%
Sales Revenue (after all of Amazon Fees): $34.59
Profit to Date: $186.9

Sales Results for the Fourth Month (November 2013)
Books Sold: 9
Percentage of Books Sold: 13%
Sales Revenue (after all of Amazon Fees): $85.93
Profit to Date: $272.83

Sales Results for the Fifth Month (December 2013)
Books Sold: 9
Percentage of Books Sold: 13%
Sales Revenue (after all of Amazon Fees): $116.02
Profit to Date: $388.85

Sales Results for the Sixth Month (January 2014)
Books Sold: 2
Percentage of Books Sold: 3%
Sales Revenue (after all of Amazon Fees): $11.38
Profit to Date: $400.23

Sales Results for the Seventh Month (February 2014)
Books Sold: 3
Percentage of Books Sold: 4%
Sales Revenue (after all of Amazon Fees): $17.36
Profit to Date: $417.59

Cumulative Sales Results
Books Sold: 53
Percentage of Books Sold: 75%
Sales Revenue (after all of Amazon Fees): $505.84
Profit: $417.59

Per Unit Averages
Buy Price:  $1.24
Gross Sale Price: $14.70
Amazon Fees: $5.15
Net Sales Price: $9.55
Profit: $8.31
Return on Investment (ROI): 670%

Book to Watch
I found this book with high value but high rank as well.  It will be interesting to see how long it takes to sell (or if it sells).  I priced it at $399.

The statistics for this sale were calculated using the Bookkeeping and Analytic features of InventoryLab.com.