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Where to find and buy books to sell online??
Tips on where to buy books for Amazon FBA and what types of books to focus on…
Tracy’s Tuesday Tips: Ebay & Amazon FBA-Where To Buy Books & Which Books To Buy?
Interested in selling books through Amazon FBA? Are you confused where to find books to sell and which books would sell and which books to leave sitting on the shelf? This week’s Tracy’s Tuesday Tips will help you figure out where to start.
If you are part of Tracy’s Amazon 360 group, then you would have seen pictures that she shared of her office filled with lots of books that she has to list and get sent in to Amazon, to sell. Tracy had worked over the weekend posting books and getting her shipments ready and it made her think of all of the tips that she wished someone had shared with her, when she was starting out on Amazon. That is what gave her the idea to share these tips with us so that we will have the advantage that Tracy did not have. We have her guidance and experience, while Tracy had to figure it out alone.
Tracy has compiled a list of tips so grab your pen and paper and let’s get started!
She shares with us that many people say that there are huge profit margins with books but Tracy tells us that this is not what she finds on a regular basis. But She was lucky when checking in books from the night before and she found 3 books in a row, that were valued over $50 but normally, that is not the case. Most of the time, the books will be under the $9.99 price and that should make us take pause since we need to pay attention to the Amazon fees. A lot of the fees are the same for a $9.99 item as they would be for a $100 item. So the fees will eat up your profit quickly.
Books are easy to ship, don’t break and cheap to buy!
With that said, Tracy loves to sell books. They are easy to ship, they do not break, they are cheap to buy and easy to acquire but just remember that the profit margins are small and the EBay fees will eat into the profit margins, quickly.
She reminds us to scan every single book unless you are buying them in bulk from a library sale or from a store that went out of business. Make sure that you have your scanning app like: Profit Bandit or at least your free seller scanner app from Amazon. This way you will know what the book is worth before you buy it. That way there will be no surprises after you buy them and send them in.
Scan all books, unless you are buying bulk
You will have to scan every book and remember there are smaller profit margins, which means you will have to list more items in order to make your desired income for the month.
Also, keep an eye on the trends. People are more and more buying books on Kindle, ebook or other apps but Tracy has not noticed a drop in sales of books, as of yet. It still is something that you will want to be mindful of.
Where to find books to sell
Thrift stores have books and lots of them, but you have to be careful because of the prices. Thrift stores would have a tendency to be more expensive than a book sale where they are liquidating books. With the already low profit margins, unless it is an exceptional book. They might be pricing their books around $3 and Tracy tells us that she never spends over $1 a book, unless it is a special book. Now that she has been selling for awhile and has more expertise, she prefers to keep her purchases at about .25 cents per book when buying them in bulk.
Tracy suggests talking to the manager and see if you can work out a deal with the store manager. Ask them what they do with the books that they can’t sell or see what kind of a deal they would work out with you if you buy a large amount of books from them.
Also, check garage sales. Many times you will see books marked $1 and you can go to the person running the garage sale and ask them what price they would give you if you buy all the books. Many times they will just want to get rid of them and say something like: ” Oh I’ll take $20 for all of them”. People do not want to have to keep them, haul them back into the house and they really just want to get rid of them.
Another great place to find books is book sales. Library sales where you can buy in bulk. She says that sometimes she will be able to pick up 300 books for around $30!
Craigslist and Facebook are Good Sources for Books
Also, Craigslist is another place to locate books to buy. Once a week check out the ads and see if you can find anyone that is selling bulk books. You can also run an ad on Craigslist asking for people to call you if they have books they do not want. Sometimes you might be able to get books for free, just by offering to pick them up and haul them away.
Facebook is another great place to source books. There are groups that will say where things are for sale and you too can place an ad to see if anyone has books that they are willing to give away.
Bookstores will have sales or they are going out of business, so there can be a lot of books that you can pick up that are new, for a cheap price. Build a relationship with the manager and see if he or she will let you know if there are any upcoming, big sales.
Church “bag” sales is another great place to source books. They will have yearly sales that will charge you a set price for whatever you can fit in your bag or box and this is the type of sale that you can really do well at.
Next, google “Goodwill Outlet Centers”. They are the pay by the pound Goodwill centers which charge by the pound vs the piece.
Flea markets also are a good place to look for books as well as dumpster diving. Look before you jump in but many times stores will just dump their unsold inventory and you will be surprised what you can find.
Surplus centers by schools and universities will sell unsold inventory. Just call your local school or university and ask them if they have a surplus center. While you are there looking around, you night find other things that you can sell and the competition is very low because most people don’t even know that they exist.
Antique stores and marts are also good places to check. Be cautious of the antique stores because they tend to be over priced but sometimes you can work out a deal if they have books sitting around that haven’t sold.
Storage units is yet another spot you can go to find inventory. If you have friends who sell other things then you can all go in on the until and split up the inventory. The downside is that you don’t get to look though the locker before the sale.
Auctions is a great way to get more inventory. Vintage books can be found in auctions and before, Tracy had to sell them on EBay, but now there are more and more vintage books on Amazon.
Here is a million dollar secret…..Recycling centers! People do not think about recycling centers, but it is a great place to find thousands and thousands of books. Call the manager and try to build up a rapport with them and see if they will work out a deal with you to save the books for you for a small price, or maybe even for free!
Don’t over look Ebay for a source for you to get inventory. People will list bulk books and you can buy them on EBay and then send them into Amazon.
Family and Friends are another good place to get books. Just tell them that you are looking for any books or boxes, packing materials,etc. You will be surprised how many people will be willing to save all of their old books and packing materials for you.
Also, make sure that you keep a look out in the newspapers. Even though you might think that it is outdated, some people still rely on the newspaper to sell things or to get rid of things. A lot of senior citizens still enjoy the newspaper and they might list their books for sale in the classified ads. You also could run an ad and see if you get any responses. Try it for a month and see what happens.
Always keep your eye out looking for books. You never know where you will find them. Even grocery stores sell books so they might have clearance sales to get rid of inventory. Keep your phone handy and ready to scan if you find some inventory.
Tracy suggests you save up about 40 books to pack in a box. Amazon boxes have to be under 50 pounds so keep filling up your box, as you find them. Once your box is filled, it is ready to ship off to Amazon.
What books are good sellers?
Tracy suggests all things academic. Text books, work books, study guides and home school curriculum. Also, any self help, counseling, health and fitness.
She stays away from fiction books unless it was something like “Harry Potter” or some other popular series like that. She tries to only sell non-fiction.
Coffee table books are another favorite. Sports cars, yachts, places to visit, with all the big pictures, sell well. Some cookbooks, vintage craft books and religious books also, sell well.
Tracy shares with us that she doesn’t sell any books under $4. Those books she will make an EBay pile and she will make a bundle of books and put them up for sale on EBay to make a little on those books. If she cannot sell it on EBay, then the books go in the “reject box”. These books will be donated so she can get a tax deduction from those books.
Hope that this was helpful and we will see you next Tuesday!
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