which is a better selling platform - Ebay or amazon? (sale, items)

[margaretBartle]

I'm a hoarder, and it's time for me to start unloading stuff, and move to a smaller place.
I feel sorry for my kid, if I don't get rid of this stuff
I have over 1000 books. Most are non-fiction, in the $10-$20 range on Amazon as used. Many are in the $30-$50 range.

I have collectibles I've accumulated over my lifetime, and my recently-departed mother's lifetime.

I've been selling a few books a month on Amazon for over 10 years, as a personal seller. I ship the stuff myself.

The nice thing about Amazon is that if the item I'm selling is in their catalog, all I have to do is give it my Stock Keeping Number, price it, and describe its condition. Very easy.
I use a spreadsheet to track things, The system works well for the volume I'm doing.

However, I have dozens of books that are older, with no ISBN numbers, and which are not in the Amazon Catalog. Some are int he catalog as a different editon, some are books that apparently no one else is selling on the internet.

Creating new listings for Amazon is a PITA, and after years of trying, I'm not going to do it any more.
I'm considering Ebay. They seem to have a lot of book sellers. Certainly, their fee is about half of Amazon's.
The trouble is, it's a lot more difficult to list on Ebay - I have to do every listing from scratch. They don't have a catalog.

Since I'm selling one-off items, I can't do one listing for a bunch of items, every item is separate.

I'm wondering if anyone here is selling their personal items, and has some advice about maybe how Ebay can be easier to use?

Maybe an easier way to get something in the Amazon catalog? Over the years, that seems to change, and it doesn't seem to always reverberate down through all the Amazon departments.

I'd like to be able to batch upload my inventory, without having to describe all the details about every items.

I understand that I will have to put int he detailed descsriptons for my unique items, which is an advantage to using Ebay or Biblio, but if I want to upload my entire spreadsheet of books, would I have to upload all the catalog info myself?

Please tell me why you sell on Amazon or Ebay. thanks

[VTsnowbird]

It's pretty rare to have to create a new listing for AZ. Dig deep enough, you will find your book and edition. The AZ search feature is useless, use Google. (Amazon search results in what they want to sell you, not what you are looking for.)


I sell on both platforms. Older books can be a hard sell. What kind of books are they? If they are common, you would do better just donating them. Or have a yard sale.


You say they are in the $10 to $20 range. Are you looking at the actual page or just search results? Search results will give you the Buy Box price but usually other sellers are selling for much less. I am gradually reducing my inventory on AZ, I can not compete with FBA sellers who can offer free shipping. (I'm FBM)

[Lodestar 77]

Do you have any Marx Bros books to sell? For that matter any "old Hollywood" books to sell? Biographies or autobiographies?

I cannot help with your selling, tho. Can you hire someone with experience to do this for you so you can move on to something else? There used to be "I Sold it on Ebay" stores, but they didn't last long.

I wish you the best in your efforts to downsize your life. It WILL be worth it, and your kid will thank you for it.

[COcheesehead]

I have been selling on eBay for almost 20 years. I’ve sold close to $100,000 of mostly personal items, occasionally items I buy to flip.
I can’t comment on Amazon. I have never used it. I feel that the market on eBay has begun to soften. There aren’t as many buyers as before since there are so many other outlets to sell things now. Facebook Marketplace being another big one.
My items usually always sell, but not at the prices that they likely would have sold for in years past.
In the thousands of transactions I’ve had, there have only been a handful of “bad actors”. I think the platform is safe, fun and puts a few extra bucks in your pocket.
Keep in mind with the new tax rules, sales totaling over $600 will trigger a 1099.

[Upminster-1]

I faced a similar situation two years ago in anticipation of downsizing. Never considered Amazon. I used mostly eBay and a specialty website for electronics, and sold about $40,000 worth the first year and a bit more than that the second year.

I also had several thousand books. I grouped some of them into sets and listed and sold them as sets on eBay. Then a bookseller who had bought several sets from me, asked if I had any more books like that, I said yes, and sent him a list of titles and photos of the books on my shelves. He made an offer to buy them all. I accepted. He rented a truck, drove over 500 miles to pick them up. I sold for about what I paid for them, he still made a profit, and we were both very happy with the result.

Yes, listing on eBay requires some effort, but using templates and simply editing them make it easier.

The question for me was ... is the money received for that effort worth the effort. In my case yes. For most of my stuff. I did end up giving away a lot of stuff that either wouldn't sell or was impractical to sell.

I had one unshippable item that cost me $2,000 just to prepare it for sale and pickup. Sold it for $4,000.

No problems with the 1099s or taxes for me, as I sold most of the stuff at lower prices than I paid. I figured any monies recovered from my investment was a bonus.

[margaretBartle]

Originally Posted by VTsnowbird

It's pretty rare to have to create a new listing for AZ. Dig deep enough, you will find your book and edition. The AZ search feature is useless, use Google. (Amazon search results in what they want to sell you, not what you are looking for.)

i never thought to use Google, that's a good idea.
It was also a good idea to go back and confirm the books aren't in the catalog.
Of the first 7 I looked for, I found three. Below are books I could not find. I've got probably two or three dozen more books that I have set aside over the years, because I couldn't find them on Amazon:
Not found:
* Vocational Determination by Maude Houghton Champion
* 1936 edition of The Horoscope Houses by Mytha Nelson
* Cebuano Folktales 1 ed. by Erlinda Alburo
* Cancer: Its Cause, Prevention, and Cure Astrologically Considered by Ada Muir, 1959 edition (later editions are available, but after so much time, I wouldn't want to try to sell this with that listing.
* Upanishads, by Nikhilananda, hardback, 1963

Originally Posted by VTsnowbird

I sell on both platforms.

So you sell on both platforms. Do you notice a difference in problem buyers more on one than the other?
How is payment? It appears that Amazon has about twice the fee as Ebay, but both sites have complicated fee structures.

Originally Posted by VTsnowbird

Are you looking at the actual page or just search results?

Amazon has been getting more sneaky, trying to hide used books. I am looking not only at the actual listing (not the search results), but also looking at all the books offered, and comparing conditions.
I try to be the lowest price for the condition, but I don't spend a lot of time going back and making sure someone hasn't lowered their price to be a little lower than mine. I know it happens, and every couple of years I might try to adjust the price.
I also haven't bothered removing the books Amazon says are too expensive. They are still on my spreadsheet, and if I do start selling on Biblio or Ebay, maybe I can use that same spread sheet.

That's why I'm posting on this forum.

thank you for your assistance!

[margaretBartle]

Originally Posted by Upminster-1

I also had several thousand books. I grouped some of them into sets and listed and sold them as sets on eBay..

that's a good idea. THANKS!

[VTsnowbird]

You might also try Bookfinder.com, it pulls in listings from all over. I found your Horoscope Houses, selling for $10 with no sales rank.


Do you know about sales rank? It makes no sense to list books with really bad ranks if your aim is to clear stuff out. They will just sit on your shelves for years. You have to ask yourself, why would someone want to buy this book?


My rule of thumb (cribbed from an AZ forum thread years ago) - books with a rank of 140,000 sell about one copy a day. Lower ranks, more than that. Higher ranks, less often than that. I try not to list anything without a sales rank, or with a really high one (and they go up to 20,000,000 these days), unless it is a $200 book.


Both platforms favor the buyer in disputes. I just had someone send back a $5 book on Ebay that they didn't like. (I had told them just to keep it and dispose of it but I was too late.) I don't believe I was charged for return shipping. On Amazon, even if you sell a light book and send it Media Mail, if it gets returned, you will be charged for a return shipping label, at PRIORITY mail rates. That's just the way it's set up.

[Teacher Terry]

When I had a ton of books I advertised them during my garage sale posting. I had 4 book dealers come and buy a bunch. Whatever didn’t sell I donated. When I am downsizing I want to move items out fast. I won’t list anything that won’t bring in at least 20 per item.