1. Many category books, such as romance, Western, or science
fiction, sell best on lots of 20 or more.
2. Some authors sell very well individually. Popular romance
author Nora Roberts is one. However, there's a glut of books by
other popular authors like Stephen King and Dean Koontz which
only sell in a large collection or as part of a more general
horror lot. Low prices also apply to something like Star Trek
books...you need a huge lot to get even a small bid.
3. Some authors or themes do not sell at any price. I once gave
away 80 routine Harlequin silhouette romances for which I could
not even get a $3 bid.
4. Children's books are considered very popular.
5. With lots, subcategories will generate higher prices. Romance
subcategories, for example, include medieval, Civil War,
Western, time travel, occult, fantasy, American Indian, etc. You
can come up with some specialized category for which some buyer
will salivate.
6. Do not underestimate the power of the word "lot" in your
title when appropriate. It is a top eBay search term.
7. Your ultimate information source is eBay itself. See how
others list their sales, use description and scans, and, above
all, research what your book is going for. I'm amazed that
people list books for $20 when everyone else is asking $1 or $2
for the same title.
8. Check your own bookshelves for books to sell, then ask
friends and relatives if they have books to get rid of. My
sister contributed five bags of paperback books she'd
stockpiled. Then hit yard sales, garage sales, flea markets,
and, the best, library sales. Library sales are bargains,
especially on $2 a bag day where you pay literally pennies per
book. You can also run a newspaper ad offering to buy paperback
books.
9. Make your sales goal $1.00 per book when selling by lot.
Ideally, the per unit expense will be .25 or less per book. You
can justify buying a few books for .50 or even .75 if it
substantially increases the value of your lot. This way the per
unit expense averages out to more than .25 but less than .50.
10. Recycle packaging material wherever possible.
Environmentally sound, it also cuts the handling charge you must
request. Check store dumpsters, ask friends to save their
packaging.
About the author:
Nick Howes is a freelance writer of magazine, newspaper, and
online articles and news director at a radio station. His
website offers used books as well as an archive of this and
other articles. The site is at
http://home.midwest.net/~howes/
