There are a few factors to consider before setting a price for your book on amazon.com. Always take a look at what the other sellers are pricing their books for. View the page where you will be listing your book. Look for the highest price and the lowest price. Once you have found those, look at the condition of each of those books. Once you decide what condition to list yours in use that as a way to decide how much you should list yours for. In example, if the highest price book is listed at $30.00 and is in like new condition, and the lowest price book is listed at $1.99 in acceptable condition, and you have a book that is in very good condition you should list it above the price being asked for the next lower condition but under the price being asked for the next highest condition. If there are several books in the same condition as yours, and you want your book to sell, list it below the lowest price for that condition. this should be done only if this is not the lowest price for the book. If this is the lowest price on the page then match it.
Another important point is to consider profit. You need to figure out how much amazon is going to take from the sell. For books they take a $.99 closing fee and 15% commission. Amazon then gives you $3.99 for standard shipping (6-14 day shipping) and $6.99 for expedited (3-6 day shipping) , and if you send your package media mail it will not cost that much unless it is an extremely large book. In example, let’s say I sell a book for $15.00. Amazon would take $3.24 so then I have $11.76. Add to this 3.99 for shipping and I get $15.75. Shipping and packaging costs come out to .50 cents for bubble wrap envelope and $2.81 for shipping, so I am left with $12.44. I paid .50 cents for the book at a used book store so I made $11.94 in profit. The math here is relatively easy. To make it easier you can list how much you paid for each book you bought on an excel sheet so you can better calculate loss and gain. If you are paying more to ship and pay amazon than you are making on the book reprice your book at a higher price or a lower price so amazon can’t take as much.
Another thing to consider is how much is the book really worth? If it is a first edition and has very little wear it might be worth listing at a higher price or even as a collectible, for collectibles there is a minimum price you can list the book for that is set by amazon. (Several sellers will have listed the book at this price so list at this price and write very good description to grab the buyers attention.) Sometimes books are listed for a penny when you know they are worth more. Charge what you think is reasonable and wait. Eventually, these penny books will sell, and their sellers will loose money, and then yours will be available to buy at a good price and for a profit. NEVER SELL A BOOK FOR A PENNY. It doesn’t work.
Finally, one should consider the ranking the book has. if a book has a very high ranking such a in the top one hundred, it is a very desirable book and will sell quickly. Price it competitively for the page it is listed on. if a book has a very low ranking like 52,965,128 it is either undesirable or rare. Again look at the page and price it competitively. Amazon ranks their items by the number of searches and clicks an item receives. Just because a book has a low rank doesn’t mean someone isn’t looking to buy it. List it.
Hope this helps if you have questions about this post or other thing about selling on amazon please don’t hesitate to ask. Next time: I will write about how to package your books effectively.
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