love2read Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 How is that working out for you? Are your books moving out at all? Anyone care to compare selling on half.com to amazon? I prefer to buy from amazon, but remember reading awhile ago that half.com books move faster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandy in Indy Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 I've sold a lot of my dc's college texts on half.com. Some things go very quickly (within hours!) and some have stayed for a long time. It really depends on the text. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
love2read Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 Do you have a time/cost/profit rule that you use when deciding whether to sell a book or not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandy in Indy Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 (edited) Not really. I keep track of what we paid for the books, look at what the text is selling for, and decide what I want to ask for it. If it doesn't sell reasonably soon, then I might go in and edit the price. I think we certainly do better than if we sold them back at the bookstore. ETA: Of course, the kids generally don't buy them at the bookstore either! Edited January 3, 2011 by Sandy in Indy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Margo out of lurking Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 How is that working out for you? Are your books moving out at all? Anyone care to compare selling on half.com to amazon? I prefer to buy from amazon, but remember reading awhile ago that half.com books move faster. I've been "on vacation" for six months, but my books sell a lot better on half than amazon. I prefer to buy used from amazon too. I don't remember the different payment structures, but I do remember that half has (had?) a higher minimum price ($.99?) than amazon ($.01). I list my books on both just to cover the bases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth S Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 We've sold about 100 books on half.com. We recently listed our 60 unsold books on Amazon. It raised our sales at both half.com & Amazon. Amazon's selling fees are a bit higher than half.com for us. I believe they both pay directly into your checking acct. (Ebay uses paypal.) Basically, it is an easy way to earn about $50 a month for us. We are heavy book buyers, so this is an easy way for us to get rid of the books we no longer want. (It's a hobby, not business.) Indeed, I listed 8 of my dd's college textbooks on Thursday (both AZ & Half), and 7 of them sold in 24 hours. But this is highly unusual. I would suggest that you list just one book (that is valued around $10), and see how it works for you. We do not bother with books valued at less than $5. (I sell these to friends at church, or donate to our local library.) You will NOT get rich quickly, but it's a nice way to earn some book money from home. You need to print out packing slips & address label each time. We re-use padded envelopes to save the $1 cost of each large one. You have to ship within 2 days of the sale, so that is sometimes a challenge. It's a lot easier to sell books/movies at first to learn. (Ebay auctions are much more challenging to list--requires pictures, weight of pkg, timing and pricing strategy.) You're basically adding your book to a list of the identical book that people are already selling. Half/AZ pay you a flat shipping fee, and charge you a sellers fee. They are usually ABOUT equal, to help you estimate. I'll close, but just to say that experience is a great teacher . . . and also its something your older children can learn to help with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
love2read Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 Thanks for responding, I think I'll give it a try with a few books. I'm really just looking to recover a little of what we spent on some of these books and not go into business. I have several hundred books that have to move and many are just too pricey to send off to a library sale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.