Any Amazon Sellers out there?

[CheapskateWife]

I am just curious if there are any MMMers out there who have experience as a vendor on Amazon (for non unique items) and if so, would you be willing to share your experiences?

Say you get a terrific deal on a bulk purchase of the latest fad in ladies wear.  You sell them on Amazon using the FBA program....after sending your merch to the amazon warehouse and let the money roll in?  Is it really so easy?

For those of you who aren't familiar, I'm referring to this program:  http://services.amazon.com/fulfillment-by-amazon/benefits.htm?ld=AZFSSOAAS

[taekvideo]

I sold off all my old textbooks and some used electronics with FBA... worked great.  Haven't had to do any work since I shipped the box to them and most of them have sold after a couple of months (the majority within a couple weeks).

[m8547]

I've sold a lot of things on Amazon. I like it better than ebay because it's easier to list an item, and I like it better than Craigslist because I don't have to interact with people. I usually ship stuff myself. Last time I looked at FBA it didn't look cost effective for what I was selling. Sometimes I will take their trade in offer if it's a good deal or if I'm lazy. Usually I'll take the trade in offer for books if it's reasonable (not pennies) since I can ship them a batch of stuff.

A lot of sellers, including Amazon themselves, will adjust their prices to try to undercut everyone else. If you want your stuff to sell you often have to go in once a day or more and set your price back down to be the lowest. For most things I'm selling I don't really care how much I get for it, I just want it to sell. It's kind of fun to undercut the market and completely devalue what you are selling. I listed one book where the price started out at $75. I got into a low price war with another seller, and they would always lower their price to a few pennies below mine. So I would go in and lower my price by a few dollars! Eventually the price of the book dropped from to $25 and it finally sold.

[taekvideo]

I've sold a lot of things on Amazon. I like it better than ebay because it's easier to list an item, and I like it better than Craigslist because I don't have to interact with people. I usually ship stuff myself. Last time I looked at FBA it didn't look cost effective for what I was selling. Sometimes I will take their trade in offer if it's a good deal or if I'm lazy. Usually I'll take the trade in offer for books if it's reasonable (not pennies) since I can ship them a batch of stuff.

A lot of sellers, including Amazon themselves, will adjust their prices to try to undercut everyone else. If you want your stuff to sell you often have to go in once a day or more and set your price back down to be the lowest. For most things I'm selling I don't really care how much I get for it, I just want it to sell. It's kind of fun to undercut the market and completely devalue what you are selling. I listed one book where the price started out at $75. I got into a low price war with another seller, and they would always lower their price to a few pennies below mine. So I would go in and lower my price by a few dollars! Eventually the price of the book dropped from to $25 and it finally sold.

lol yeah that's why prices fluctuate so much on Amazon.  I don't bother re-lowering mine... I just pick a good price at the start and leave it... with FBA it'll stay in their warehouse up to a year without any extra fees and it's bound to sell before then.

[MrWednesday]

I sold a little on amazon a few years ago before their listing fee hike (which happened about a year ago). Recently I  looked into listing a few books and was shocked at how bad a deal the listing fees currently are. For a $10 book they are charging about $3.50 which means as a seller you end up with about .50 to ship the item (as amazon charges 3.99 to the buyer for shipping) If you are using FBA also be aware amazon will charge you for storage of the item and if it never sells they will charge you to ship it back to you, or a slightly smaller fee to destroy it for you. If you were going to go FBA route I'd make sure it is a popular item likely to sell and something you can make a large enough profit on to make it worth your time.

[Ashyukun]

I got into selling one Amazon a ways back thanks to some recommendations from the 'side hussle' thread. Initially (and still to an extent) it was hitting the local thrift stores and finding books & such that could be re-sold on Amazon for a profit. When we moved and started downsizing a lot of stuff, all of my DVDs and books that I decided not to keep and were worth enough to not take a loss were put up as well, which has provided a lot more money than initially expected (though it's not sustainable since I'm not adding more inventory). Since I'm doing lots of unique items (i.e. I only have one of each) I haven't been using FBA- I looked over the calculator for using FBA vs doing it on your own, and it didn't make sense to me for the volume I sell (at most 5-6/day) to use FBA.

If I'd somehow ended up with a pallet of a reasonably popular book? I'd be more seriously considering it since the extra they'd charge would be worth it for not eating up all of my time.

The fees are definitely exhorbitant though- and their 'fixed pricing' for shipping can also be a MAJOR pain in the ass for heavy books (like textbooks) that cost more to ship than their flat $3.99 standard shipping will cover. They also essentially force you to spend another 25 cents on heavier stuff by dinging your 'account health' rating if you ship things without tracking information (seriously, who the *&%^! cares if a $1 book has tracking information?).