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How to sell second-hand books on eBay

by: Stephen Webb

You�ve sold all your junk. Emptied your attic. Sold your Grandmas antiques. What�s left to sell? How can you start making a more regular and reliable part-time income?

OK, selling unused stuff that has been hanging around your house is a great way to start your eBay trading.

Like most eBay traders you then probably check out places such as car boot sales, charity shops, thrift shops, garage sales etc. Again these are great places to pick up one off items and make a good profit on eBay.

The reason that you make a good profit is because the item that you are selling is fairly unique and there will be little if any competition in the eBay market place.

One of the down sides of these �second-hand� items is that they are all different, it�s difficult for you to specialise in one item, and they all require different types of eBay descriptions. They also require different sized and types of packaging. In fact, dealing in these types of items can turn into a full time job, very soon the fun aspect goes out the window.

Eventually, after being on eBay for a while and studying other sellers, you see that some people are getting a high feedback by repeatedly selling the same item, usually with the �Buy It Now� option. These are things such as DVDs, CDs, Videos, virtually any type of items that you can find in normal shops.

What these people are doing is buying the items in bulk from wholesalers and reselling at a profit on eBay. However, because everyone has access to the wholesalers, you will no longer have a unique product. This means that you will have competition which means much lower profits for you. I�ve seen some �eBay Power Sellers� that sell over 30 DVDs per day at about $3 each. That sounds like a lot of work and administration for probably not a huge profit.

It would be nice if you could find an item that is somewhere in between the above to ways of selling on eBay.

Would you be interested in an item that has the following benefits?

Currently over 4000 of these items sell each week on eBay, so it�s a big market.

You can pick up the items really cheap in most towns, you�ll even find them in those garage sales and thrift shops, but you�ve been ignoring them!

The items are all roughly the same size, so you can standardise on your packaging.

The mark up profits can be phenomenal, perhaps 200% to 800%.

The item that I make a great part time income from is second-hand books. OK don�t yawn, it may sound boring, but that boredom soon goes when I buy a book for around $20 and resell it on eBay for $80.

Each second-hand book is fairly unique, like selling junk, thus there is little competition and that means I can make a good profit.

The main difficulty with selling second-hand books is knowing which ones sell for the most profit. For example you don�t want to buy books for $10 that can only be resold for $15. You could study eBay on a regular basis and make notes of what books are being sold for a high price. This would take you months of research and you would still have a limited list. Alternatively you could visit http://www.books2profit.com

About the author:
Copyright 2005 Stephen Webb
Stephen Webb is a freelance author for If you would like to know more about selling second-hand books on eBay click this link:

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Getting Great Deals on EBay
by: Lorraine Venner

I love getting a deal. I try to smell them out from miles away. I love frequent garage sales, flea markets, closeouts, and more -- but found that I could much better by simply buying through online auctions - if I shop carefully.

Getting a deal out of EBay auctions is an art. Buying from auctions can be a costly proposition or a very economical option depending on your tactics. Buy wisely by learning from my (sometimes costly) experiences.

1. Is the Seller Trustworthy?

Both EBay and Yahoo auctions have seller ratings. Read these and their associated reviews. If the seller has a great rating from buying and a poor one from selling, you probably don't want to buy from them. Look at both praises and complaints as they may or may not apply to what you are bidding on.

2. Read the Description Throughly

It is very easy to read what you want to see in an Ebay auction rather than what is actually written there. Read both what is in the Ebay description and what is NOT in the description. Often your mind will want to fill in details with what is your dream interpretation. You need to re-read the description until you find out whether what you are searching for and what the seller is selling match.

* Used or New?

Is the item you are buying used or new? If it doesn't say new, you are most likely buying something that is used.

* Real or Fake

Is the item you are interested in "real" gold, sterling silver or pearls? For example, a description saying: "gold necklace for sale" does NOT say 14 kt gold or 18kt gold. That most likely means a gold COLORED necklace which may or may not have actual gold metal. This also applies to pearls as many call plastic fake pearls simply "pearls".

If the seller is selling beads, those beads could be plastic, glass, stone, scrap metal, crystal, chips, wood, clay, gemstone or some other material.

* Item Details

Does the EBay description really say how much you are getting, how long the item is, and quality of the item? Selling by the pound can be a great deal - or a horrible deal.

* Beware of Hidden Costs

Look at shipping and handling costs. I've seen many penny auctions that have $13 or more shipping. Some auctions even have handling fees.

* How Fast Will it Ship?

I've been seeing a fair amount of auctions that note that the product will ship in 2 months or that shipping time is 2 months. If you are buying for a particular holiday, be sure that you will get the item in time.

3. Is it a Bargain For You?

Many times an EBay auction will say that the items are "worth $XXX". In many cases, that price is inflated. Often you can find similar items much cheaper tah "$XXX" at normal stores. (However, the auction price may still be cheaper than you can by elsewhere - it really helps to know how much you usually pay for items!) If you are only interested in some of the items in an auction, adjust your bid to reflect how much you are willing to pay for just those items unless you plan to sell the rest as that is how much you would pay for it elsewhere.

4. Auction Fever

Compare prices on the net at the same time to avoid overpaying. Know that usually you can get the item later elsewhere. Wise buyers know to walk away when the price is higher than the item is worth to them.

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