Goal: To see the exact profits from library book sales. All books are sold on Amazon FBA.
Setting
City: Lincolnton, NC
Place: Civic Center
Advertised on: BookSalesFound.com
Date: September 2013
Prices:
Soft Cover Books: $.50
Hard Cover Books: $1
Equipment:
Dell Axim X51 PDA with a Socket Scanner Attached. The Neatoscan Software was installed on the PDA.
Buying Strategy:
I check the non-FBA prices on Neatoscan (the left hand column). This column shows the 5 lowest used prices listed prices on Amazon. If any of those prices were 2 cents or higher, I would buy the paperback book for 50 cents. I then turn around and listed these on Amazon FBA for $9.95
Purchase Numbers
Books Purchased: 114
Cost of Books: $82.50
UPS Inbound Shipping: $42.65
FBA Label Service: $18.80
Total Costs: $143.95
Sales Results for the First Month
Books Sold: 24
Percentage of Books Sold: 21%
Sales Revenue (after all of Amazon Fees): $166.35
Profit: $22.40
Sales Results for the Second Month
Books Sold: 14
Percentage of Books Sold: 12%
Sales Revenue (after all of Amazon Fees): $69.70
Sales Results for the Third Month
Books Sold: 5
Percentage of Books Sold: 4%
Sales Revenue (after all of Amazon Fees): $27.32
Sales Results for the Fourth Month
Books Sold: 10
Percentage of Books Sold: 9%
Sales Revenue (after all of Amazon Fees): $54.15
Sales Results for the Fifth Month
Books Sold: 5
Percentage of Books Sold: 4%
Sales Revenue (after all of Amazon Fees): $22.34
Cumulative Sales Results
Books Sold: 58
Percentage of Books Sold: 51%
Sales Revenue (after all of Amazon Fees): $339.86
Profit: $195.91
Per Unit Averages
Buy Price: 1.26
Gross Sale Price: $10.65
Amazon Fees: $4.69
Net Sales Price: $5.96
Profit: $4.70
Return on Investment (ROI): 373%
To see the individual transactions, please click on the image below. Statistics are courtesy of InventoryLab.com. Use coupon code “booktothefuture” for a one month free trial.
Nathan,
You mean you listed all these books at $9.95 no matter what the low price was? What about the people that list books at $4. Did you still price yours at $9.95?
Hi Paul,
Yes, I set a minimum price of $9.95. I try to avoid buying books that might have FBA sellers selling at $4 and below. I do this by only buying books with a merchant fulfilled price of 2 cents or more. If a book has a MF price of over 1 penny, it usually means there is little to no FBA competition. Therefore, I can set my FBA price around $8-10 and still make the sale.