The Journey of a New Online Book Seller

Hello All!
Sales are starting to pick up as of recently. Shipment 14 arrived a few days ago and was checked in very quickly. The first few books sold minutes after they were listed! Of course the ranks were under 1,000 I am looking forward to seeing more of this shipment selling. Shipment 15 is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, I hope that it is still checked in and the books are available for sale on the same day. In the past shipments that have arrived on a Friday were not processed until Monday. There are a lot of expensive books in Shipment 15 and I hope they sell soon.

If you are not using Amazon’s discounted UPS rates to ship out your FBA packages you are missing out! I know that some people just are not familiar with the process but honestly it could not be any easier. Shipment 15 weighed in at 39 pounds and cost me $12.42 to ship through UPS Ground with Amazon’s discounted rates. If I went directly through UPS I would have had to pay $30.93!! That is $18.51 more and it is quite a lot!

Kathi and I have been quite busy lately so we have not been able to do a lot of book scouting. I hope to again soon, I imagine there is a lot of great books waiting for us. We still continue to check Craigslist for bulk deals on books but we have yet to find any.

Some of the books that have sold in the last three days are:
So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore – $7.56
Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel by Changing the Way You Think – $8.99
Month-by-Month Phonics for Upper Grades: – $8.46
The Energy Bus: – $9.97
Doctors’ Vitamin Cures That Work – $19.46
Twentieth Century Eightball – $10.99
The Path of the Just – $12.04
Silent Hill 3 Official Strategy Guide – $10.97
How Your Church Family Works: Understanding Congregations as Emotional Systems – $11.94
The Ultimate Guide to Elk Hunting – $14.24
The Porcelain God: A Social History of the Toilet – $7.66
Rebuilding: When Your Relationship Ends – $10.42
The Gospel of Thomas: Annotated & Explained – $4.95
Discovering Your Heart with the Flag Page – $15.24
The Cosmic Perspective Fundamentals – $28.40
Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds: Notes from a Northwest Year – $4.00
Spider Woman’s Granddaughters: – $4.00
Ducasse Made Simple by Sophie – $10.09
Spy vs. Spy: The Complete Casebook – $12.91
Ben Bernanke’s Fed: The Federal Reserve After Greenspan – $4.89
Complete Book of Tanning Skins & Furs, The – $4.00

TOTAL: $221.18

This past weekend was quite a book scouting adventure. The weather wasn’t all that great, so we did not go to many garage sales. We did end up going to a local Friends of the Library sale or FOL sale. This sale was in a local town where we had previously gone to one of their FOL sales. To summarize our previous experience, it was our first FOL sale, and we were yelled at by the person running the sale for using a scanner. We were not hoarding books or being rude to anyone. Still to this day I believe their decision was ridiculous.

We still decided to go back to this sale, because, well we are booksellers and to hold a grudge and miss out on some books is just stupid. This FOL sale started on Thursday and ran through the weekend, culminating in a bag sale on Sunday. Sunday is when we went, and the bag sale was as many books as you could fit into a shopping bag for $5.

Kathi and I were both excited and nervous, as were were not going to be using our scanner but just our instincts on what books to buy. It was slightly reassuring knowing that the people running the sale were keeping an eye out for scanners like hawks. In the past 5 or 6 months Kathi and I have looked through thousands of books and we had a pretty good idea what would be good.

At the sale there were approximately 8,000 books. The books were stacked up on tables, and some were stacked up below the table. We arrived at the start of the Sunday opening and it was fairly busy. We headed straight towards the non-fiction section and started digging. The library had provided a brown paper shopping bag (with handles thankfully ) and we started filling the bag up. Eventually it was filled to the brim and we checked out and paid $5. I had no idea what to expect, but was excited to scan through everything when we got it back to the house.

The first couple of books we scanned all came back penny books, and I was starting to get worried. Then Kathi typed in the ISBN of a small hard cover book in good condition, the lowest used price was $74!! even better the sales rank was quite low. I was shocked, but also quite relieved knowing that we can trust our instincts for future sales where we don’t have a scanner. There were also a number of other $15+ books included in our haul. All totaled we bought 23 books for $0.22 a piece. Combined the books should bring in $170 or so.

That wasn’t the end of our book scouting adventure however. A few days prior we had heard about an estate sale that was taking place around the same time the FOL sale was in the same area. The ad for the estate sale mentioned that there were thousands of books. Of course hearing that we were quite excited to go. We arrived at the house which was quite old but a very nice looking. From what I understand the couple who previously lived there were big collectors of old books. Almost every room in the house had books! Unfortunately a lot of the books were really old and in rough shape. If I had room to store all of the approximately 5,000 books I may have made a small offer on them just to slowly dig through everything, there were probably a few good gems, but we stuck with what we knew in 1970 and later books that had ISBN’s. There were a lot fewer newer books but we still found some great ones including a book that is going for $35. We spent $2 at this sale for 4 books and they should bring around $70

We also stopped at one garage sale in the area. This sale was right next to the house that was holding the estate sale. It was very smart of this person to hold their sale on that day, because there were so many people going to the estate sale next door. We quickly popped in, and found a book about tea, selling for $15 we paid $0.50 on were on our merry ways

Overall it was a great weekend for book scouting, and I can’t wait until these books start selling. On to what sold recently.

A Touch of Wonder: A Book to Help People Stay in Love With Life – $4.00
Visioneering: God’s Blueprint for Developing and Maintaining Personal Vision – $4.24
The Collector’s Encyclopedia of Homer Laughlin China: Reference and Value Guide – $9.25
The Structure of Magic, Vol. 1: A Book About Language and Therapy – $8.65
Lead the Way – $19.08
Schoolwide Discipline Plan Without the Loopholes – $6.94
Jimmy Stewart and His Poems – $4.00
The No-Cry Nap Solution – $10.06
Searching for the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead – $6.94

TOTAL: $73.16

In my last post I mentioned, that my inventory is waning, and I was looking to do some more bulk buys. A couple of days ago, Kathi and I came across a Craigslist posting of a person trying to sell a lot of 400 books. The seller did not want to break up the lot and was asking $80.

Yesterday Kathi and I decided to go and take a look at these books. The seller was located about an hour away but it was a nice relaxing drive. When we got there we started digging through the boxes of books, there were approximately 15 boxes and all the books were neat and organized. Unfortunately there was a lot of older books, probably 75% were older than 1950. Some boxes were full of magazines which the seller did not mention. We scanned a few books but did not find anything that would make this lot worth it. Maybe I should have took a risk on this group but I just could not justify it. There may have been a few good older books, but some were water damaged and in rough shape. I still think “what if” with all of these books, but I think we may have dodged a bullet.

I am still very glad that we went and looked at these books however. We ended up stopping at a Goodwill on our way out of town, and scored some great books. We bought four books out of the clearance section 3 were $0.99 and one was $0.49. Two of the books were average but the other two were each selling for $40.00!! Overall I hope to make $75 profit with these four books.

Shipment 13 has been checked in to Amazon for a couple of days now and the sales are starting to pick up. I hope to get Shipment 14 prepared soon!

The books that have sold since the last post were:

May 16th
Before the Frost – $5.72
Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? – $4.97
Quick Skills: Embracing Diversity – $7.58
What Do You Do When the Medications Don’t Work? – $23.91

May 17th
Sowa’s Ark: An Enchanted Bestiary – $23.18
An Invitation to Wellness: – $8.54
Why Gender Matters – $4.00
Sarah’s Key – $5.70

May 18th
Easy Spanish Reader w/CD-ROM: – $9.57
Anchors Aweight – $6.00
Exchange Student Survival Kit – $12.18
Effective Small Group and Team Communication – $15.98
Religion in Ancient Egypt – $5.98
Working Stiff – $7.15
Sentimental Education – $6.96
Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues – $30.98
Simple Signing with Young Children – $15.77

May 19th
You’re Smarter Than You Think – $7.96
Lead the Way – $19.08
The President’s Table: Two Hundred Years of Dining and Diplomacy – $8.76
The Book: An Actor’s Guide to Chicago, Sixth Edition – $4.48
Creative Albums – $8.50
Sunday in the Park with George – $6.14
Plan B: What Do You Do When God Doesn’t Show Up the Way You Thought He Would? – $6.92
Everyday Chinese Cooking: Quick and Delicious Recipes from the Leeann Chin Restaurants – $8.68
Monkey: Folk Novel of China – $5.36

TOTAL: $270.05

Yesterday Kathi and I did some book scouting and we found a handful of good books, I am excited to get another shipment on its way out. We went to a few stores over the course of the day and we ended up with around $100 worth of books. Not bad considering we only spent about an hour looking at books.

Today will also be a day of book scouting and I hope to find some more good books. Also tomorrow we have plans to go to a store that has some amazing prices for books most are $0.10 each. I saw some pictures and it looks like it could be a good find. It seems this place supports a senior citizen home, so it is nice to know that anything we buy would support the community.

I also wanted to let you know that I will be changing a few things around in the blog soon. I want to make things a little bit easier for new visitors along with people who have been following along for some time now. The first step is to build a “Intro Page” My plans for this page is to do a short recap of each post that has been published. So as a new visitor you can quickly read what has happened on my journey since the beginning. I hope to have this rolled out within a few days. Also some more things will be coming. Is there something that you would like to see? Please let me know I am open to all suggestions.

On to what has sold recently:

Make Prayers to the Raven: A Koyukon View of the Northern Forest – $8.92
Poems New and Collected – $8.18
Vecellio’s Renaissance Costume Book – $7.91
The Deborah Company – $4.00
Women Composers: The Lost Tradition Found 2nd Edition – $6.29
Life in an Anishinabe Camp – $7.24
The Handmade Soap Book – $6.96
Birds First Discovery Books – $4.00

TOTAL: $53.50

Sales have certainly been slowing down recently, so I am in book buying spree, I also hope to make some bulk purchases soon!

It took a while but I was finally able to get Shipment 13 boxed up and ready to be sent out. 60 books are included in this shipment, in two 12X12X12 boxes weighing a total of 72 pounds. The cost to ship these books to Amazon is $23.24 or about $0.33 per pound. This per pound, UPS Ground rate is right around what I have been paying the last few shipments. Being in Wisconsin I would love to be able to ship to a closer fulfillment center but alas that is not the case and these books are headed towards Pennsylvania.

I am still very happy to pay the amount that I do, because Amazon worked out a great deal with UPS so I am saving a lot of money. I checked out the rates at UPS.com and if I were to ship these books out myself UPS Ground I would have to pay, $55.13 or $0.77 per pound. With Amazon’s special rates I am paying $31.89 less! I will gladly ship my books wherever Amazon wants me to for those rates

Today I received an email from Amazon stating that I was just automatically reimbursed for a book that they “misplaced” at the fulfillment center. I know just above I was telling how great FBA is but this is one of the downfalls, they sometimes lose your books. However I am still very happy with how they resolve the situation. The book Norwegian Elkhounds was lost in early April according to Amazon. After 30 days Amazon will automatically reimburse you. The amount that I received was $6.12, not a whole lot of money but a fair price. If I had sold the book that is approximately how much I would have made after fees. So when all is said and done, it is sad that Amazon lost a book but I am happy that they paid me a fair price for the book.

Yesterday I was charged my FBA storage fee for last month. On average I had around 100-200 books at any given time. The fee that Amazon charged me was a whopping $1.73 What a great deal! Before I started FBA, the storage fee was one of my worries, I am so glad that it didn’t stop me. Granted I don’t have a lot of books at Amazon but it is so much easier for me to not have to worry about storing every book, and shipping, etc.. If you were considering FBA and the storage fee was holding you back, do not let it. If you send low rank books and price fairly, your books will be in and out of the warehouse so fast it will make your wallet spin

The books that have sold since the last post were:

May 9th
Tovar at Grand Canyon National Park – $7.82
Auguste Comte and Positivism – $8.46

May 10th
Mankiller: A Chief and Her People – $4.48
Sr. Pepino Series – $15.02
Brag!: The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn without Blowing It – $7.11
The Fourth World of the Hopis – $5.63
The Magic Pill: A Mental Health Companion for the Gastric Bypass Patient – $5.15
Total Loss: A Collection of 45 First-Hand Accounts of Yacht Losses at Sea – $6.21
Nate The Great And The Missing Key – $4.00

May 11th
Life in an Anishinabe Camp – $7.24
How to Write a Selling Screenplay – $4.95
A Complete Guide to Obesity Surgery – $12.48
Financial Intelligence: How to Make Smart, Values-Based Decisions with Your Money and Your Life – $17.97
War’s End: Profiles From Bosnia 1995-1996 – $10.28

TOTAL: $116.80

Hello!

I wanted to get a quick post out with a few updates. I will be working on Shipment 13 tomorrow, it should be about 40 books. Sales have been fairly slow recently, so I will be glad to get some new inventory up and listed. I hope to send out Shipment 13 tomorrow or Tuesday.

Before I list what books have sold, I wanted to share a strange feedback that I got today. The feedback was a positive and I was given a five star rating, the feedback said:

“I have no comments to make and am unhappy that either Amazon or this seller requires a comment.”

I am quite confused by this statement, I don’t know where the buyer got the idea that Amazon or I required feedback. I know that Amazon sends out an email politely asking for your thoughts. I thought about responding to the comment, but I figured it is probably better to not anger this person any more. I also know that soon this feedback will be buried, and there is no real reason to draw attention to it. I am just glad it was a positive feedback

The books that have sold recently are:

May 6th
Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business – $6.10
ID: The True You – $7.59
Gardening Under Cover: A Northwest Guide to Solar Greenhouses, Cold Frames, and Cloches – $14.94

May 7th
When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm – $11.04
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation – $4.00
An Anthology of Sacred Texts By and About Women – $6.98
Charlotte Huck’s Children’s Literature with Online Learning Center card – $22.94

May 8th
Gravy Wars: – $12.06
Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History – $4.03
Splendid low-carbing: A complete guide for low-carb living – $10.18
Effective Small Group and Team Communication – $18.15
Priests for the Third Millennium – $9.07
The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness – $6.24

TOTAL: $133.32

Yesterday Kathi and I went on quite a book scouting adventure. We had recently seen an ad on Craigslist for 9,000 books, the seller showed pictures and everything looked great. As soon as I saw the ad the dollars signs were running around in my head. I was thinking, if I can make $500-$600 profit with the 451 books I just bought, surely I can make a huge amount with all of these books. I even had a U-Haul priced out. The unfortunate thing was the seller was almost three hours away. Kathi and I decided that it wasn’t feasible to buy all of the books, and we figured at the most we could haul 1,500 books in my parents truck. We decided that if we liked what we saw we would make an offer for a portion of the books rather than all of them.

The seller lived in a tiny town that required us to take a ferry to access it. The seller and her family were extremely gracious and made us feel right at home. She had three rooms filled floor to ceiling with books, we were excited to start scanning. It turns out this lady was a seller and decided to get out of the business. We scanned and scanned and scanned, and did not find one single good book! Here I was all excited to buy all of the books and there was nothing worth buying. We scanned for a full hour, and scanned hundreds of books. Granted we didn’t scan all of the books but with the way things were going I just could not see us making any money from these books. There were a lot of high rank books and a lot were in pretty rough shape. Even though we didn’t buy any books, I am still glad we went because it was quite an adventure (and a lot of fun taking the ferry )

Shipment 12 arrived a couple of days ago and has been processed and the books are selling quickly. I hope to get Shipment 13 sent out soon.

On to what sold recently.

April 30th
Feng Shui Principles for Building and Remodeling – $4.60
Buried Treasure: Hidden Wisdom from the Hebrew Language – $44.95
The Big Book of Potluck: Good Food – and Lots of It – $4.97

May 1st
Living in the Combat Zone – $10.71
Jewelry & Gems for Self-Discovery: – $4.90
Devil’s Knot : The True Story of the West Memphis Three – $7.15
It’s Just My Nature! – $16.54

May 2nd
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer (P.S.) – $5.97
The Antelope Wife: A Novel – $3.52

May 3rd
The Book of Bourbon: And other Fine American Whiskeys – $30.99
Children’s Fashions, 1860-1912: 1,065 Costume Designs from “La Mode Illustree” – $28.93
Cutting for Stone – $8.67
Apple Pie and Enchiladas: Latino Newcomers in the Rural Midwest – $14.90
Cancer Why We’re Still Dying To Know The Truth – $8.06
Webster’s New World Italian Dictionary: Italian/English, English/Italian – $6.60
Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters – $14.98

May 4th
500 Years of Golf Balls: History & Collector’s Guide – $12.94
We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance – $4.12
The Shock of the New: – $11.64
Quit Your Job And Move To Key West : The Complete Guide – $19.98

TOTAL: $265.12