Reseller Retrospective 2: Books sold in the second month of the eBay store

 

The books are taking over.

     Well, it's month two of nearly continuous operation of the eBay store, with a few multi-day sanity breaks in-between. My wife and I have fallen into sync and found our cadence with finding books, listing them, shipping prep, and final shipping to the customer. For those following along, this is a follow up to the previous post, found here. I went out to find books three times in the Month of April, finding several books in the process. In one instance at a hospice thrift store, I found five first/first Stephen King books, including IT, in mint unread condition; those books have been listed but not sold yet. I have found more books to list and inventory than we sold, so overall, I think this could be very sustainable long term. The amount listed below is before shipping, (I charge $5 for PB and $6 for HC) and estimated eBay fees. 

• $12 - Brazen Gambit - Lynn Abbey - First Dark Sun PB 1994
• $15 - God Emperor Dune - Frank Herbert - BCE HC
• $15 - Witch World - Andre Norton - First PB 1963
• $50 - Heretics of Dune - Frank Herbert - First/First HC
• $46 - The Man Who Rode Thunder - Williams Rankin - 1965 PB
• $9 - Infernal Idol  - Henry Seymour - 1969 First PB
• $10 - A Voyage to Arcturus - David Lindsay 1973 PB
• $13 - Children of Dune - Frank Herbert - 1984 PB
• $40 - Focus on Biology
• $35 - I, Robot - Isaac Asimov - BCE 1950 HC
• $10 - The Mousetrap - Agatha Christie - 1969 First PB
• $15 - The Belgariad Part Two - David Eddings - BCE HC
• $9 - The Abyss - Orson Scott Card - First PB
• $11 - The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester - First Timescape PB 1978
• $28 - Highlander - Garry Kilworth - First PB 1998
• $11 - Deception Well - Linda Nagata - BCE HC 1978
• $15 - Charnel House - Graham Masterton - First HC 1978
• $12 - Swords Against Darkness IV - Andrew Offutt - First PB 1979
• $22 - Dangerous Visions - Harlan Ellison - First HC 1967
• $10 - The Forever War - Joe Haldeman - PB 1976
• $10 - Ringworld - Larry Niven - 3rd printing 1971 PB
• $12 - Picnic on Paradise - Joanna Russ 1979 PB
• $25 - The Djinn - Graham Masterton - First PB 1977
• $10 - A Feast Unknown - Phillip Jose Farmer - First 1980
• $6 - Deus Irae - Phillip K Dick/Zelazny - 1977 PB
• $12 - Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut - First 1970 PB

     In the month of April we made $471.73 net from 26 book sales, give or take a few bucks we made on shipping. Our 60 day total is now $1,193.10. The average price of books sold was a paltry $17.80, and our overhead on shipping media mail averaged $5.30 cents per book, which is envelope plus media mail average $4.40 shipping, and the little fake library cards and a protective bag we add in each package to solicit positive reviews and add a personal touch. (See results below)

     It's worth noting we are having issues with book storage, moved some boxes to the garage, and the desks are overflowing. The top of my son's piano has turned into a staging area for books waiting to be shipped or listed, and the plastic totes behind me have turned into the collection for current listed inventory. There has been a few moments where it has taken more than 5 minutes to find a book when sold, so we are working on a better way to keep things organized; more to come on that. I feel that our little sanity breaks of 4-5 days did not help the book sales and keep the inventory fresh, so it's been hard to keep motivated when I work a 50+ hour a month job and my wife homeschools all day. Tough changing gears! We felt discouraged when there was 3-4 days without a book sale, only to be rewarded with multiple days in a row of sales, or multiple in one day. I think it's just staying motivated and consistent overall that will keep this train on the tracks. So far in May we have already sold six books with a value of $193, so it's looking like a record month.

See you in May for Reseller Retrospective Part 3!