What is the Deal with Penny Book Sellers?

One of the more common questions I get is about penny books and penny book sellers. They are plentiful on both eBay and Amazon. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you continuously run across them on both marketplaces:

1)If you look at the penny book sellers, they usually have thousands of books for sale and a large feedback number. These people are buying by the tractor trailer load, pallet, gaylord, or getting all the leftovers from library sales or storage unit auctions. Some books in those lots will be good to sell, some won't. They can make a few cents on a penny book sale rather than throwing them away. They have huge operations with warehouses and many employees processing books. It works for them to make a few cents on hundreds or thousands of sales a day.

2)Many also use repricers and the prices spiral down to a penny. If you have 3-4 large sellers all using repricers, and no one has set a cut off for the price, the automation of a repricer will allow the price to go to a penny. And these large sellers don't care.

3)There are lots of large sellers using Amazon and eBay for customer harvesting. They can get a sale, and include promotional material in the shipment to entice the buyer to go to their website (20% off your first order!!). Rather than trash a worthless book, they use it to reach a new customer who may become a valuable repeat customer on their own personal website.

Bottom line - don't assume everyone on eBay or Amazon is there to make money, and don't assume they are there for the same reasons you are.


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Improve Your Listing Photos with This Free Tool

The photos of the items for your listings are a very important part of marketing your items. They represent your item first in terms of attracting customers to your listing. People often use the look of the item in the photo as a way of determining the condition of the item. With that in mind, I suggest that you may careful attention to the photos you take for your listings. Once that is done, you may need to do a few things to clean up the picture.

Adobe Photoshop is an expensive option for cleaning the images and making them more attractive to a potential buyer. At nearly $700 for the latest version, that software may not be the best option for the typical seller. Thankful, there is another tool that can help and it will not make that large a dent in your budget.

Fotofuze.com is an online image manipulation tool that can be used to clean up your listing photos. The free tool helps convert the photos to look as if they were taken by a professional. Below are a few before and after photos.

You take the photo, upload it to Fotofuze, highlight the item and its shadow, and process. The process takes less than a minute work. There is even an option to create 3D views of your product. The tool can be connected to Etsy (just choose this option when you sign up). With that connection, you can even enhance the photos on listings that are already live. It is hard to believe it but yes, this tool is free!

Take a look at this quick overview of how to use Fotofuze.




Click here to sign-up.


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Personal Reasons Prompt Selling on eBay

Many online sellers have ventured into eBay to make money while staying at home, to sell surplus items they have found around the house, or as a replacement for a full-time job. There are a couple of guys out there who are using eBay for a more personal reason.

First is Bill Shephard. Bill is an out of work Iraqi vet who lives in Woodbury, NJ. He recently left the Army and was finding it difficult find work as a civilian. He was at a major fork in the road. Upon leaving the Army, he returned to school. He applied for numerous jobs. He asked for help from various veteran organizations but still was not able to find work. Bill made a difficult decision. In order to support his family and to start a new business, Bill decided to sell his Army Achievement medal on eBay. With a starting bid of $1.00, the auction closed three days (and 62 bids) later with a winning bid of $5,200.

While many are not happy with his decision to sell the medal, the proceeds have allowed Bill to take care of the immediate needs of his family and to purchase equipment to start a landscaping business.

Then there is Andy Martin of Stockton, Teesides, UK. Andy was recently notified that his position as traffic planner for a waste management company would no longer exist after June 30. After sending is many copies of his resume to various companies with no leads, Andy finally decided to list himself on eBay. His buy it now price was £20,000 (which currently is about $31,000 US dollars.) eBay has contacted Andy to let him know there is a policy against selling one’s self on its site but has let him move the listings to a “goods wanted” section. Meanwhile, Andy continues his job search and is hopeful his will find something before the end of his current position.

There are many others who have found themselves in similar positions that have led to becoming successful online sellers. It can be done. Find out how by visiting the related links below.


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Selling a Piece of History

The day of the shiny diner has come and gone but many are still holding on to the nostalgia that those buildings provide. Recently, a Washington, DC diner owner faced reality and his failing business and put his shiny diner up for auction…on eBay!

The authentic modular Silk City diner that was build in 1947 by the Paterson Vehicle Company was originally located in Avoca, NY. After 60 years in that location, the seller purchased the diner and moved it to Washington, DC where it spent two years as the Capital City Diner. After facing major competition from a national chain that located near the diner, the owner had to make the difficult decision to close the diner in January 2012.

Instead of limiting his buyers to only the Washington area, the seller decided to list the diner on eBay. Below is a screenshot of the actual listing.

The seller listed the diner on February 28, 2012, with a beginning amount of $20,000. Ten days and nine bids later, the seller had a winning bidder who offered up $40,000 for the diner. No word on if the buyer was local to DC or not. The seller did inform bidders that he had the contact information for a reputable company to move the diner to the buyer’s location. Shipping was separate and it was the responsibility of the buyer to arrange the move, if needed.

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George Washington Chicken Nugget

A few weeks ago, I blogged about an eBay auction for a grilled cheese sandwich that sported a likeness of NFL Quarterback Tim Tebow. Now a chicken nugget “celebrity” look-alike auction has surfaced.

A screenshot of the closed auction is shown below.







The seller added this description to the listing:

Approximately 3 years ago, I treated my children to “99 cent McNugget Tuesday” and play time at our local McDonald’s. As I was cleaning up, I noticed one particular nugget and began to laugh. I picked it up for a closer look, and sure enough it was in the likeness of President George Washington. I decided to take it home and show my husband this hysterical find.

When he arrived home, I pulled it out of the freezer and he could not believe his eyes. We shared a moment of laughter as we joked about putting it on (eBay). Then back in the freezer it went.

This “President George Washington Chicken McNugget” became a show and tell item for friends and family who came to visit, and all have responded with awe and laughter over this remarkable find. We have shared many laughs over this “President George Washington Chicken McNugget”, but now he has been called to a higher purpose.

The seller was hoping to use this presidential McNugget to raise money for a church camp for a group of students from Iowa. Unfortunately, there were no bidders and the McNuggest remains in her freezer.



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Photo Placement is Important on eBay

If you are using a third party service to host your eBay photos, you may want to reconsider having eBay host your photos as well. When you upload your photos directly to eBay, they appear in the top left corner as one large photo and several small thumbnail photos underneath. What you may not realize is that if your photos are hosted on another site, they will not appear until lower in the page in the description area. Buyers may not scroll down to see photos, or even realize additional photos are present in the listing if they don’t see the thumbnails at the top. This is called placing your photos above the fold.

The term “above the fold” originated in the newspaper business. It was used to describe the section of the paper that everyone saw when it was on display. Newspapers designed their papers so that the most eye catching and important headlines were easily visible.

If you pay attention to the websites of big online stores, you’ll notice that the majority of them follow this principle. They place information about specials, marketing information, and any promotions currently available at the top of their webpage – above the fold. People have learned to look in this area for important information, and their reaction is no different when they’re shopping on eBay. If photos and other information aren’t immediately visible above the fold, many potential buyers may leave your listing and not bother to look any further. Making sure your listing has a good “headline” can entice potential customers to look further at your listing and ultimately make a purchase.


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Process for Listing, Relisting, and Marking Down eBay Items

It can be hard to know what method to use to list items on eBay and to know how long to list them. Plus, what are you supposed to do if your item doesn’t sell before your listing ends? Here is my personal process, that I have developed after 8 years of selling on eBay. It may not work for you, but this is a system I use that works. My sell through rate (on the Terapeak Seller Tab) is between 55% and 60%, so I must be doing something right.

Start by listing your item as an auction or for a fixed price for 7 days (use information from Terapeak to guide your decision). Terapeak has a chart that tells you the average price of the item on auction, or fixed price, so you can see historical data on which method brings a higher price. A 7 day listing helps you because it allows your item to come up higher in eBay searches - a lot of people sort by “ending soonest” on eBay. Also, that item has not been on eBay yet, so you may get a taker within the first week. But, don’t automatically relist your product for 7 days when the listing ends. This will only start the process of being found by search engines all over again.

If your item doesn’t sell after 7 days, try a 30 day fixed price listing for the same price. If someone is watching your item, eBay will send them an email informing them it’s been relisted. Plus, one of the benefits of a 30 days listing is that it gives search engines a chance to index your listing. There isn’t time for that when you use a 7 day listing. Don't assume your price is too high. There is nothing magical about a 7 day listing. If your item doesn't sell within 7 days, it just means the right buyer hasn't seen it yet. If you had your home on the market and didn't get an offer in 7 days, you wouldn't automatically drop the price would you? Of course not.

After your 30 day listing ends, try to list it one more time. You can also change it to “good till canceled” if you’re willing to just let it sit. If the item still hasn’t sold after 90 days, it’s time to add Best Offer to your listing. Because you’ve had the product for a while, you should consider negotiating in order to sell it. This should be your last resort though – after all, you want to make as much profit as possible.

How long should you leave an item on Good til Canceled? That is a personal decision. Much of this depends on how much profit you stand to make. Examine the number of page views on the item? Is it being looked at? If page views are very low, consider marking the item down to what you paid for it plus a small amount for fees, and move on. I personally don't like to accumulate too much inventory, especially if buyers aren't even looking at it.

Don't have Terapeak yet? Click here to get it now. A research tool is the best investment you can make in your eBay business!

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eBay Marketing Strategy - Multiple Listings for the Same Item

If you are drop shipping, purchasing products wholesale, or other wise have multiples of the same exact item to sell on eBay, try this strategy.

Create multiple listings for the same items using different listing durations, keyword combinations, and even price points. Example: – if you sell an item for $12.95 with $3.95 shipping, try listing it $16.90 with free shipping. The total cost is the same, but FREE SHIPPING appeals to some buyers even if they don’t do the math! You will see other sellers doing this. Some sellers have over 20 listing for the same exact item. They create different title variations, listing types, and price points to appeal to a variety of customers.

This seller has over 5,600 listings. But that doesn't mean he has 5,600 products. I did a search for "yoga mat ball" and 71 listings in his store were returned. Click here to see them. Most of the 71 listings are for the same product. (The yoga balls differ in size, but you get the point.) This is different than creating 1 listing with multiple variations. You want to create different listings that will come up in different searches.

Now, if he is paying .20 per listing, this strategy costs him $14.70 for that one item. Consider the cost advertising fees. When looking through his feedback, I see that he sells quite a few of these yoga mat and ball sets each month. So apparently, the strategy is working.

But is it cost effective? Only you can decide that based on the fees and your profit on each item.

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