Selling on Ebay

I would like to sell some of my books on Ebay. I tried to figure out the best way to do it but got lost in all the options.
Need advice on a couple of things:

1. Auction or set price ? Or both ?
2. How to calculate shipping costs? Should I use a service like stamps.com?

Any advice would be appreciated
Thanks in advance!

I've started a little side business in my retirement selling on Ebay. I haven't sold any FS books there, but in my experience fixed prices work best unless you have something that you think could trigger a bidding frenzy. In those cases, you can set a sufficiently high reserve price to ensure you don't end up selling it too cheaply.

If you set your listing up as Calculated Shipping, Ebay will figure out the shipping cost for you. Just pack up your books and enter the box dimensions and weight. If your book sells, you can buy shipping labels directly through Ebay.

There is a Facebook group for buying and selling Folio Society books, where you can avoid Ebay's fees. I have sold a few of my precious books there (they were never bought with the thought of reselling them), and have dealt with great people who I trust more than a random Ebay buyer.

>2 coynedj: I appreciate the advice, did not consider Facebook as an option, since I don't have a FB account any longer :)

If you have something out of print that is a popular title (science fiction, crime, fantasy) I would recommend a fairly high starting bid auction. I would wait until it’s not be sold by another seller on eBay if possible. Also, know your shipping costs and put your shipping quote at what it’ll actually cost you, meaning don’t throw in free shipping. Definitely package the books well as these are obviously collectible. I ship media mail with no problems other than it’s slow. As far as costs goes it’s around $4 for one media mail book usually. Bigger books are obviously more expensive but media mail is super cheap.

When in doubt go conservative on condition. You don’t want to mislead and say like new condition unless it’s really in great shape. Folio fans are picky for the most part on this.

I've been selling some of my collection off through ebay. I've used the 10-day auction option, with varied starting prices: for standard volumes I've gone for around £5-10 per volume, whilst LEs I've started off at higher amounts, sometimes into 3 figures. I've for the most part stuck to domestic UK selling only (I ventured further afield for a couple of books where it was worth the extra effort, anxiety and cost), and used Royal Mail for parcels under 2kg, and DPD for parcels over that; I wouldn't touch Hermes, the cheapest option, with a barge pole. I have been prepared to spend time and a degree of margin (I charge the postage plus a bit, but sustain most of the packing costs myself). to ensure that books have been fairly described, and properly packed and protected, and I think that's paid off. I've been perfectly happy with the sums made - some have done better than I hoped, some not as well, but it has so far tended to even out reasonably to make a decent return. I also find going for auction far less stressful than trying to work out what I should/want to expect from a sale - just let the market find its own level above a minimum I'm prepared to accept.

My experience of the FB page wasn't great - I offered books at what I thought were reasonable prices, and had several try to knock the price down. In all cases, I declined, took the books to ebay and actually did better there (even allowing for the fact that ebay and paypal take their slices). So far, I've had no issue with any customer, many of whom have been idenfitiably members of the Facebook group. Almost all I've had contact with have been FS collectors or lovers of books buying for themselves, for presents etc.

Hope that helps.

You can generally charge a bit of a premium if you offer Buy It Now since people will pay to avoid having to wait or face the uncertainty of being sniped (outbid at the last minute). The downside is that you have to know what price to set and it's easy to either sit on an unsold book or to leave money on the table because you priced too low.

Usually, if it's a book that comes on the market from other sellers fairly often then I'd just set a BIN price around the market rate and scoop up a buyer looking for a quick and easy purchase. If you're the only show in town then it might make more sense to run an auction with a start price you'd be happy selling at and see how many buyers come out of the woodwork.

Also bear in mind that buyers for more esoteric titles can be as rare as the books themselves. But if you have something rare and do find the guy who really wants it then you can charge a lot. So if you're not in a hurry it might make sense to let it sit at a highish price and wait for someone to take the bait.

You can also ask a bookseller to sell books on commission. The owner loses margin but the bookseller has to do all the work!

Wow, lots of options :)! Thank you so much for advice, I watched some videos today on how to sell stuff on eBay and together with your advice I now have a much better understanding of the process.

The fees seem to be around 13% , am I wrong in that ?

I would prefer to do private sells since there is no fees involved.
I personally found some people in very surprising places ,including Amazon, with whom, after buying an item through the platform, I then continued doing business privately to our mutual benefit.

But those are rare ....

>8 dar.lynk:
The fees seem to be around 13% , am I wrong in that ?
I think that depends on where you are in the world. Here in the UK it's 10%. Paypal is another 3% for domestic transactions.

I recently sold about a dozen Folios on ebay after unloading and moving some of my bookcases within the home and realizing I wouldn't miss them.

I tried to include pictures of any scuffs/marks, and set the minimum bids at prices I would be happy with after looking at completed sales for the same volumes.

All sold, several for double or more of what I thought they might bring, though I had to relist the most expensive two once each.

Media mail is a steal in the USA, shipping for a heavy two-volume set was less than $9.

It was a very positive experience for me, and I've already invested some of my proceeds into the Taschen sale. Good luck!

eBay's fees are 10%; PayPal another 3-5%. You would still want to use PayPal in the Facebook group, however, but you avoid paying eBay's awful fees.

>11 U_238:

Ebay is worse than that now, at least for the U.S.A. 12% for books, dvds and related media. Ebay is changing everyone over to a new payment processor but the fees aren't going to be much lower so don't expect to see any price changes.

>12 MobyRichard: Wow. Where is the competition? For whatever issues the FB group might have, anything from 9-12% in savings is tangible.

For Canada the fees for books are either 10% or 9.15%; the table here is incomprehensible to me:
https://pages.ebay.ca/seller-centre/fees-payments/fees.html#fees-table

I know there is a "Max £1/1€ Selling Fees" offer on both eBay UK and France from time to time but I can't speak for the US. I personally don't sell anything expensive through eBay without it (PayPal fees still apply but it saves you the ~10% eBay normally takes).

Here's a link if you want to check the terms & condition: https://pages.ebay.co.uk/promos/149h32/index.html

Now US eBay charges the seller commission on the total price the buyer pays, so the seller is charged 12% even on the sales tax. Since this change, I have not listed new items.

The more I hear from you all, the less I want to go ahead with this adventure :). I think I will just post a message on "Nextdoor" app, see who responds ;-). There may be book lovers around me I was not aware of