Book Sale Experiment #4
My next book sale adventure led me to the friendly state of Ohio. I was on my way to visit family in Illinois, and I found a book sale in a suburb of Cleveland, OH.
This took place on a Friday evening on June 20th at the Cuyahoga Library in Middleburg Heights, OH. I had just finished a power yoga session at Cleveland Yoga at 4 pm so I was feeling alive and energetic. By the way, I have found that yoga is a fantastic way to stay energized, focused, and grounded especially after long hours of driving in the car.
I was happy to see the soft cover books on the low end at 50 cents each. Hard covers were $1. I stayed at the sale from 6pm to 9pm and ended buying exactly 100 books for $74.25. I also spent $31.16 in UPS inbound shipping and another $15.40 for the FBA label service. That’s brings my total expenses to $120.81.
After the first month, 32 of the books sold for $181.66. So, I’m up around $61 with 68% of the books left to sell. Not a huge amount so far, but that’s why I'm calling these experiments. Some are winners some are not. Also, I think it is important to note that the books were ex-library books. So all the books were listed as “good condition”. As always, this post will be updated every month to show the current numbers.
Here's the breakdown:
Costs
Total Books Purchased: 100
Books: $74.25
UPS Inbound Shipping: $31.16
FBA Label Service: $15.40
Total Costs: $120.81
Time Investment
Hours at Sale: 3
Hours Prepping for FBA: 1.2
Total Hours Worked: 4.2
Results for the First Month (6/29-7/29)
Books Sold: 32
Percent of Books Sold: 32%
Sales Revenue (after all Amazon Fees): 181.66
Results for the Second Month (7/30-8/29)
Books Sold: 8
Percent of Books Sold: 8%
Sales Revenue (after all Amazon Fees): $52.81
Results for the Third Month (8/30 – 9/29)
Books Sold: 7
Percentage of Books Sold: 7%
Sales Revenue (after all Amazon Fees): $53.67
Results for the Fourth Month (9/30 – 10/29)
Books Sold: 3
Percentage of Books Sold: 3%
Sales Revenue (after all Amazon Fees): $23.78
Cumulative Results for Month 1-4 (6/29 – 10/29)
Books Sold: 50
Percent of Books Sold: 50%
Sales Revenue (after all Amazon Fees): $312.22
Current Profit: $191.41
Hourly Rate: $45.57
Here are some pics of the sale:
To view the individual transactions, please click on the image below. Statistics courtesy of InventoryLab.com. Use coupon code “booktothefuture” for a one month free trial.
I’m a stay at home mom who is always looking for ways to earn a little income. For a couple of years I’ve been buying children’s books at garage sales and re-selling them at local consignment sales. Just yesterday I heard about FBA for the first time. I was looking into it online and found your blog. I looked at the ASellerTool website and realized it will cost quite a bit to get started – $300-$400 for the PDA and Scanner plus $30/month. Then you pay Amazon $40/month for FBA. Am I missing other costs? My question is, how much time should I reasonably expect to commit in order to make a profit doing this? Or is there a way to “try it for a few months” without spending so much upfront to see if it is feasible for me as a mom to 3? Thanks for any advice you can give.
Hi,
Your best bet would be getting this scanner on eBay for $188. If it doesn’t work out, you can return the PDA to AST and sell the scanner on eBay. If you can’t find any buyers, I’ll buy it from you.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASellerTool-X51-PDA-Book-Scouting-Scout-Socket-Laser-Scanner-scan-FBAScan-/281147107049
Hope that helps,
Nathan
Question Nathan: I have about 1,000 books listed on Amazon Merchant fulfilled.
Would it make sense to switch them to FBA?
I would switch everything to FBA unless it is a penny book with dozens of other FBA competition.
Thanks for reading,
Nathan
Great information! Thank you for being willing to share your expertise. A question – Do you have a separate process for hard cover books? They seem problematic because of dust covers. A lot that I find have tears or curling and it is time consuming to describe those in the condition notes. Since you have streamlined condition notes, do you bother with these books? And if so how do you handle them?
Hi Cindy,
I don’t a separate condition notes for hard cover books. If there are tears on the cover, then I will just list that under the “Good Condition” with “minimal signs of wear…” category.
-Nathan
Do you have a book scouting tool that you recommend…Do you use the label service to save time,or when you are on the road
I have a question about library books. Other than maybe wiping them down and bar-coding them, is there anything else that needs to be done before shipping to FBA? I know you make a note in the description about it being a former library book, but they want so many labels removed, I’m surprised they don’t ask for library book labeling to also be removed. I want to be sure the books I’ll be sending aren’t rejected.