Comments on: Amazon.com, take II http://blog.paulpehrson.com/2006/01/24/amazoncom-take-ii/ Paul Pehrson's technical writing blog Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:16:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: paul http://blog.paulpehrson.com/2006/01/24/amazoncom-take-ii/#comment-53079 paul Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:07:38 +0000 http://blog.paulpehrson.com/2006/01/24/amazoncom-take-ii/#comment-53079 Maybe you didn't read my post clearly. My intention was never to spend time trying to get rich selling items on Amazon. I had a few extra books we wanted to sell. This is clearly not a business for us. In total, we were listing like 25 books we were considering getting rid of. The point of my post was to talk about Amazon's ridiculous fee structure. The percentage cuts they take on items they sell are immoral. It's also immoral that they charge more money to ship items from Amazon than they allow Amazon Marketplace sellers to charge. I want to make people aware of what I consider to be Amazon's dishonest business practices with relation to Marketplace sellers. We don't have to agree. But it is unfair to characterize my comments as me trying to make a ton of money selling nickel and dime items on Amazon. I just want to be able to sell some extra books and get fair compensation for it.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('53079','paul'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('53079','paul','Maybe you didn\'t read my post clearly. My intention was never to spend time trying to get rich selling items on Amazon. I had a few extra books we wanted to sell. This is clearly not a business for us. In total, we were listing like 25 books we were considering getting rid of.\r\n\r\nThe point of my post was to talk about Amazon\'s ridiculous fee structure. The percentage cuts they take on items they sell are immoral. It\'s also immoral that they charge more money to ship items from Amazon than they allow Amazon Marketplace sellers to charge. I want to make people aware of what I consider to be Amazon\'s dishonest business practices with relation to Marketplace sellers.\r\n\r\nWe don\'t have to agree. But it is unfair to characterize my comments as me trying to make a ton of money selling nickel and dime items on Amazon. I just want to be able to sell some extra books and get fair compensation for it.'); return false;">Quote</a></div> Maybe you didn’t read my post clearly. My intention was never to spend time trying to get rich selling items on Amazon. I had a few extra books we wanted to sell. This is clearly not a business for us. In total, we were listing like 25 books we were considering getting rid of.

The point of my post was to talk about Amazon’s ridiculous fee structure. The percentage cuts they take on items they sell are immoral. It’s also immoral that they charge more money to ship items from Amazon than they allow Amazon Marketplace sellers to charge. I want to make people aware of what I consider to be Amazon’s dishonest business practices with relation to Marketplace sellers.

We don’t have to agree. But it is unfair to characterize my comments as me trying to make a ton of money selling nickel and dime items on Amazon. I just want to be able to sell some extra books and get fair compensation for it.

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]]> By: Ellen http://blog.paulpehrson.com/2006/01/24/amazoncom-take-ii/#comment-53078 Ellen Thu, 21 Feb 2008 14:56:17 +0000 http://blog.paulpehrson.com/2006/01/24/amazoncom-take-ii/#comment-53078 Maybe you should stop wasting your time selling nickel and dime items on Amazon and then complaining about how little you make, and spend your time on more productive and lucrative pursuits.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('53078','Ellen'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('53078','Ellen','Maybe you should stop wasting your time selling nickel and dime items on Amazon and then complaining about how little you make, and spend your time on more productive and lucrative pursuits.'); return false;">Quote</a></div> Maybe you should stop wasting your time selling nickel and dime items on Amazon and then complaining about how little you make, and spend your time on more productive and lucrative pursuits.
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]]> By: Nancy Bergh http://blog.paulpehrson.com/2006/01/24/amazoncom-take-ii/#comment-4044 Nancy Bergh Thu, 05 Oct 2006 01:15:40 +0000 http://blog.paulpehrson.com/2006/01/24/amazoncom-take-ii/#comment-4044 Maybe everyone should stop selling on amazon for a few weeks unless they give us more for shipping. I will check out abebooks though<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('4044','Nancy Bergh'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('4044','Nancy Bergh','Maybe everyone should stop selling on amazon for a few weeks unless they give us more for shipping. I will check out abebooks though'); return false;">Quote</a></div> Maybe everyone should stop selling on amazon for a few weeks unless they give us more for shipping. I will check out abebooks though
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]]> By: paul http://blog.paulpehrson.com/2006/01/24/amazoncom-take-ii/#comment-1215 paul Fri, 16 Jun 2006 00:26:25 +0000 http://blog.paulpehrson.com/2006/01/24/amazoncom-take-ii/#comment-1215 Chocolette, Based on my experience, I think it would be hard to get a good price using a normal e-Bay auction, because supply doesn't always match demand. With Amazon, you can list a textbook, and keep it listed until it sells. With eBay auctions, you have to re-list the item every week or so in order to keep your auction current. Besides that, you don't get much say in the price. For a rare book, or for a text book, I think Amazon.com is the easiest way to go. You just put in the price you want to sell at (realizing the Amazon.com commission), and let it go. When it sells, you ship. But rare book buyers and textbook buyers are fewer and can be far-between, for which Amazon.com is, in my opinion, a better option. Good luck, though, with whatever you decide.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('1215','paul'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('1215','paul','Chocolette,\r\n\r\nBased on my experience, I think it would be hard to get a good price using a normal e-Bay auction, because supply doesn\'t always match demand. With Amazon, you can list a textbook, and keep it listed until it sells. With eBay auctions, you have to re-list the item every week or so in order to keep your auction current. Besides that, you don\'t get much say in the price.\r\n\r\nFor a rare book, or for a text book, I think Amazon.com is the easiest way to go. You just put in the price you want to sell at (realizing the Amazon.com commission), and let it go. When it sells, you ship. But rare book buyers and textbook buyers are fewer and can be far-between, for which Amazon.com is, in my opinion, a better option.\r\n\r\nGood luck, though, with whatever you decide.'); return false;">Quote</a></div> Chocolette,

Based on my experience, I think it would be hard to get a good price using a normal e-Bay auction, because supply doesn’t always match demand. With Amazon, you can list a textbook, and keep it listed until it sells. With eBay auctions, you have to re-list the item every week or so in order to keep your auction current. Besides that, you don’t get much say in the price.

For a rare book, or for a text book, I think Amazon.com is the easiest way to go. You just put in the price you want to sell at (realizing the Amazon.com commission), and let it go. When it sells, you ship. But rare book buyers and textbook buyers are fewer and can be far-between, for which Amazon.com is, in my opinion, a better option.

Good luck, though, with whatever you decide.

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]]> By: Chocolette http://blog.paulpehrson.com/2006/01/24/amazoncom-take-ii/#comment-1187 Chocolette Thu, 15 Jun 2006 19:08:19 +0000 http://blog.paulpehrson.com/2006/01/24/amazoncom-take-ii/#comment-1187 Thank you very much for this post. I was just wondering, since you have much experience with amazon and perhaps with ebay as well, are there enough buyers on ebay looking for books for them to sell? For instance, if I had a less common book like a Spanish book, would it be likely that it'd sell on ebay? I'm also not very familiar with ebay selling accounts. I believe they charge a $0.20 listing fee. Is there any additional charge after that? Perhaps a % charge from the sale price as a commission? Amazon does rip you off for low cost books (selling and buying!)!! Thanks again!<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('1187','Chocolette'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('1187','Chocolette','Thank you very much for this post. I was just wondering, since you have much experience with amazon and perhaps with ebay as well, are there enough buyers on ebay looking for books for them to sell? For instance, if I had a less common book like a Spanish book, would it be likely that it\'d sell on ebay? I\'m also not very familiar with ebay selling accounts. I believe they charge a $0.20 listing fee. Is there any additional charge after that? Perhaps a % charge from the sale price as a commission? Amazon does rip you off for low cost books (selling and buying!)!! \r\n\r\nThanks again!'); return false;">Quote</a></div> Thank you very much for this post. I was just wondering, since you have much experience with amazon and perhaps with ebay as well, are there enough buyers on ebay looking for books for them to sell? For instance, if I had a less common book like a Spanish book, would it be likely that it’d sell on ebay? I’m also not very familiar with ebay selling accounts. I believe they charge a $0.20 listing fee. Is there any additional charge after that? Perhaps a % charge from the sale price as a commission? Amazon does rip you off for low cost books (selling and buying!)!!

Thanks again!

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]]> By: Fin http://blog.paulpehrson.com/2006/01/24/amazoncom-take-ii/#comment-359 Fin Tue, 21 Feb 2006 06:27:17 +0000 http://blog.paulpehrson.com/2006/01/24/amazoncom-take-ii/#comment-359 Try abebooks.com. Their books sell better, they give you 5 dollars for shipping, and only take out 25 dollars a month. <div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('359','Fin'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('359','Fin','Try abebooks.com. Their books sell better, they give you 5 dollars for shipping, and only take out 25 dollars a month. \r\n\r\n'); return false;">Quote</a></div> Try abebooks.com. Their books sell better, they give you 5 dollars for shipping, and only take out 25 dollars a month.

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]]> By: John Hedtke http://blog.paulpehrson.com/2006/01/24/amazoncom-take-ii/#comment-345 John Hedtke Wed, 25 Jan 2006 17:16:31 +0000 http://blog.paulpehrson.com/2006/01/24/amazoncom-take-ii/#comment-345 I recommend not going to Amazon for books just because of their fees, but I have sold a number of technical books (mine and spare stuff in the library) on eBay with fair success and darn few fees. Yours truly, John Hedtke www.hedtke.com www.hedtke.blogspot.com<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('345','John Hedtke'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('345','John Hedtke','I recommend not going to Amazon for books just because of their fees, but I have sold a number of technical books (mine and spare stuff in the library) on eBay with fair success and darn few fees.\r\n\r\nYours truly,\r\n\r\nJohn Hedtke\r\nwww.hedtke.com\r\nwww.hedtke.blogspot.com'); return false;">Quote</a></div> I recommend not going to Amazon for books just because of their fees, but I have sold a number of technical books (mine and spare stuff in the library) on eBay with fair success and darn few fees.

Yours truly,

John Hedtke
http://www.hedtke.com
http://www.hedtke.blogspot.com

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]]> By: Dave Loveless http://blog.paulpehrson.com/2006/01/24/amazoncom-take-ii/#comment-344 Dave Loveless Wed, 25 Jan 2006 01:24:35 +0000 http://blog.paulpehrson.com/2006/01/24/amazoncom-take-ii/#comment-344 Don't go to ebay yet. I have to jump on this gravy train of cheap books brought to you by Paul Pehrson Books, Inc. Are you listed on Nasdaq?<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('344','Dave Loveless'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('344','Dave Loveless','Don\'t go to ebay yet. I have to jump on this gravy train of cheap books brought to you by Paul Pehrson Books, Inc.\r\n\r\nAre you listed on Nasdaq?'); return false;">Quote</a></div> Don’t go to ebay yet. I have to jump on this gravy train of cheap books brought to you by Paul Pehrson Books, Inc.

Are you listed on Nasdaq?

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