Just thought I would share the results from my last book sale.
Friday Night Preview
I bought 25 books at $1 each. The total Amazon listing value was $433.21 with an average rank of 543K. The Friends membership was $30 and there was a 25 book max purchase.
Ave Purchase Price: $2.20
Ave Amazon Price: $17.30
Saturday
I bought 82 books at $1 each. The total Amazon value was $356 with an average rank of 496K.
Ave Purchase Price: $1
Ave Amazon Price: $4.34
Sunday – Half Price Day
I bought 100 books at $.50 each. The total Amazon value was $342.46 with an average rank of 618K.
Ave Purchase Price: $.50
Ave Amazon Price: $3.42
Monday
Listed, labeled, and packed books into boxes.
Tuesday
UPS came and picked up the packages for $7.50. They were delivered to the nearest Amazon FBA warehouse 3 days later.
Cumulative Stats
Books Purchased: 207
Ave Purchase Price: $.89
Ave Amazon Price: $5.40
Ave Rank: About 550K
Conclusion
The point of these stats is to show the following:
1) There is still a lot of money to be made at book sales – IF you are using Amazon FBA.
2) Don't just go to the preview night! There is more money to be made buying the lower priced “leftover” books on day 2 and 3.
3) Keep your price requirement low. Most book sellers have a minimum price requirement of $5. I had a minimum Amazon price requirement of $2.50 on Saturday and $1.50 on Sunday.
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That is awesome. I have been watching your information, bought your book, and have been quietly buying books. Now I just need to take action. You inspire me.
Thomas
So, to ship those boxes, it was only $7.50?
And I don’t understand the Amazon rank thing. What does that mean?
Do you use a special app on your phone to find out the value of a book when you’re at the sale?
Thanks so much for your great content
I’m glad you enjoyed the info, Thomas.
Nathan
The Insider –
It cost $7.50 to have UPS come and pick them up at my door. The costs to ship the boxes was about $50.
Amazon rank shows how fast the book will sell. A ranking of 1 is the best – 6 million is about the worst.
I use a scanner from http://www.Neatoscan.com
Nathan
This question may sound silly. It’s about the shipping of boxes from your end to Amazon’s fulfillment warehouse.
When you ship the books, do you take other precautionary measures like lining the sides of boxes with bubble wrap for added protection? The transfer of books is something beyond your control and when they reach the warehouse opposite or inferior to their description and they get sold, there may be an issue with customer complaints and ratings.
In the same thinking, would it be better to ship books in lower counts (less heavy) or more (heavier)?
Thank you.
Gerardo-
I just make sure that I pack the books tightly into the box. I try not to go over 50 pounds.
For CDs and DVDs, I will normally use bubble wrap.
Nathan
Hey guys. I also use FBA and love it! Need to say, shipping your books to AMZ works out at about 45c per pound.
We have sold both ways now. Shipping from home and FBA. FBA is about 40 minutes more work at the frontend per box, but well worth it.
FBA Rocks!
Assuming that all books sold at the Amazon price, about how much would you expect to make for this load, after all fees?
Mike,
I would say roughly $800-900.
Nathan
How you pack the books inside of box, you can make a short video about this.. I use your FBAPOWER program for first time so i need your help. Thanks
lider01,
If you watch the FBAPower Videos on the top of the blog – you will get a good idea of how to pack the items in the box.
Basically you just scan the book, pick the condition and price, put a sticker on the back, and put it in the box.
Nathan
I’m curious Nathan… do you scan each and every book at a book sale to determine which ones to buy or do you buy some of them based on a “hunch” that they will do well on Amazon? If it’s the former, it sounds like a great deal of scanning.
Hi AtownPA!
No, I don’t scan every book. I only scan books that I think are worth money. After a couple dozen book sales, you will develop a good feel for the profitable books.
For example, many softcover non-fiction books always seem to have some value.
Also, this is the reason why many big book sales are still profitable. No one person can take over. There are just too many books to scan.
Nathan
Amazon accepts used library books? I thought that was a big no no!?
You can send ex-library books to Amazon. Just make sure that you say that in the description.
Most books from library book sales are donations – not ex-library books.
Nathan
Hi Nathan, That’s great information. Do you recall how many books total for sale? and how much did you spend to find these 200 or so books at the sale? between all 3 days.
I believe there was close to 100,000 books at that sale.
I spent $184 on books.
what is your feeling about adding the keywords and searchterms as well? do u think it helps? i know its faster to do the 1 page fill in and if u think its best ill happily stop adding keywords and searchterms as that does take up more time.. thanks for the great info! im sending my 1st shipment of books out friday..
Thanks for the great info. I’m using a live service, and I’m a little slower when scanning. So, I’m often getting what others leave behind. Actually, that’s pretty great.I get the books for under $5 all the time, and it really adds up on the discount days. Plus, I agree that you need to have a feel for the books. I’m always finding books that others have left behind because they ignored them. I’m also willing to get on my knees and dig through the books on the floor. I’ve noticed that many people just scan quickly and leave. Because I don’t give up, I get all the goodies they leave behind. Believe me, they leave behind a lot.
thank you .. Inspiring Nathan.
Nathan, Thanks for this update. I only wish I was further along setting up my FBA business. The libraries in my area are having their fall sales this weekend, but I don’t have a scanner yet and my phone doesn’t have auto-focus so scanning bar codes doesn’t work too well.
Could you elaborate on this statement:
“Keep your price requirement low. Most book sellers have a minimum price requirement of $5. I had a minimum Amazon price requirement of $2.50 on Saturday and $1.50 on Sunday.”
I am new and starting out with books, and I find the hardest thing so far is determining what to put in the cart. There are SO MANY books that seem to be only marginally profitable. Could you give some details on what makes sense for you with these type of books as far as buying and pricing? I have been running into a lot of 0.15 cent books that are <1 million rank that are difficult/marginal buying decisions. When you say “minimal price requirement” do you mean “minimal total profit” after all fees/buy cost/ shipping are taken into consideration?
I was referring to the Merchant Fulfilled Price. Or the non-FBA price of an item. As long as a book has a merchant fulfilled price of higher than 1 penny, there is usually some room to profit when using FBA. I tried to explain this in my latest youtube video here:
https://booktothefuture.com/YouTube7
Hi, Nathan.
So would u say you are so successful because of having the scanner to work with? This is totally out of my budget right now, so what would be the alternative to being successful in finding and selling books with Amazon FBA? Is there a manual workaround for what you are doing with the scanner?
I really am excited about doing this, I am in the thrift store all the time and they always have great sales on the books, but have no idea on what to buy and again limited on what to spend. I do have my phone with internet. Can I still do this? Appreciate your help and website 🙂
Yes, you can get by without a scanner, but it’s a lot slower. If you have a phone that’s not smartphone, you can use http://www.ScoutPal.com. If you have an iPhone or an Android there are plenty of apps such as ScanPower, Profit Bandit, and Price Check by Amazon.
that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! The fba fees are going to be AT LEAST 3.50 per book, and you’re going to sell a book fba for $2.50??!!
$2.50 was the lowest merchant fulfilled price – Not FBA. I can normally sell a book that has a $2.50 merchant fulfilled value for $10+ on FBA.
This is very interesting. Thank you for sharing. I am curious since so much time has passed if you have numbers on how many of the books sold, etc?
I have not kept track of the numbers from this particular sale. If you check the “book sale leaderboard” page on my blog, you can view the exact profits from the recent book sales that I went to.