Comments on: My Experience Moving from FillZ to Monsoon http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/adams-pick/moving-from-fillz-to-monsoon/ Successful online bookseller, Adam Bertram, teaches his secrets to starting and maintaining an online book-selling business. Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:50:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Anonymous http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/adams-pick/moving-from-fillz-to-monsoon/comment-page-1/#comment-1303 Anonymous Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:30:00 +0000 http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/?p=1134#comment-1303 Approve. Approve.

]]> By: Outsider http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/adams-pick/moving-from-fillz-to-monsoon/comment-page-1/#comment-1302 Outsider Thu, 13 Oct 2011 02:06:00 +0000 http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/?p=1134#comment-1302 There's no way on God's green earth I'd pay 3.5% in additional fees for my online sales.  A busy high-end bookseller could rack up 30K in fees per year easily.  If you are going to spend that kind of money you could develop your own software over 2 or 3 years that customized to your own business, and then you'd never have to pay another dime. There’s no way on God’s green earth I’d pay 3.5% in additional fees for my online sales.  A busy high-end bookseller could rack up 30K in fees per year easily.  If you are going to spend that kind of money you could develop your own software over 2 or 3 years that customized to your own business, and then you’d never have to pay another dime.

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/adams-pick/moving-from-fillz-to-monsoon/comment-page-1/#comment-1301 Anonymous Thu, 13 Oct 2011 01:14:00 +0000 http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/?p=1134#comment-1301 If you do go to Monsoon, make sure you mention me for a referral. :) Monsoon is much easier for me to use to load in new inventory and has a much better pricing section. The only downside is if you've got a few thousand books listed, you need a pretty beefy computer to install Monsoon on and a fast Internet connection for it to work. To list that many books, Monsoon uses classifications you can set for your items to put cookie cutter descriptions. I typically sort them by a few general conditions then set my condition notes to each group of books. If you do go to Monsoon, make sure you mention me for a referral. :) Monsoon is much easier for me to use to load in new inventory and has a much better pricing section. The only downside is if you’ve got a few thousand books listed, you need a pretty beefy computer to install Monsoon on and a fast Internet connection for it to work. To list that many books, Monsoon uses classifications you can set for your items to put cookie cutter descriptions. I typically sort them by a few general conditions then set my condition notes to each group of books.

]]> By: Glenn http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/adams-pick/moving-from-fillz-to-monsoon/comment-page-1/#comment-1300 Glenn Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:25:00 +0000 http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/?p=1134#comment-1300 Adam, I am a long time reader of your blog and have enjoyed the information I have been able to find. I started off early this year with scoutpal and thrift stores. I quickly got on board with Fillz as my inventory grew to over one thousand within a month. I recently purchased 40,000-50,000 used books from someone who did this sort of thing for a living. He had been doing it for over ten years but abruptly passed away. His family did not know how to tackle the business and ended up selling the entire inventory of his personal and business to me at roughly 20 cents a book. This was a huge jump and an amazing oppurtunity for me to get bumped up to the big leagues. The pitfall being that this person had no ogranization to his inventory nor did he have more then a 1000 of the books listed. I currently use Fillz and Endicia. My supported marketplaces are amazon, half, alibris, biblio, valore, textbookx and amazon.ca. Since accuiring the 50,000 books two weeks ago,  I have been able to inventory about 1000, putting my total listed inventory at 2000. Average book price 14$. I use a handheld scanner and fillz to input my inventory. Although this method is good, it is still very time consuming. Unfortanetely, I feel like my effeciency of listing is largely hindered by the technology of fillz. I will be making the jump to monsoon edge in the near future, but had a few questions. Did you notice a huge jump in the overall inventory process and pricing schemtaics when you moved over to Monsoon? i want books to be accurately listed, but would like to increase my listed capacity. (It takes me about two weeks to complete 1000 fully listed inventory.) Last question is my price break for profit is about $1-2 per book listed. Anything worth less then a dollar is donated to charity and used for tax write off purposes. (loss). I donate a considerable amount on a weekly basis. I usually price each donated book at a value of $1 per book. Do you think that estimate is believable by most CPA's or could I write them off for more per book. Adam, I am a long time reader of your blog and have enjoyed the information I have been able to find. I started off early this year with scoutpal and thrift stores. I quickly got on board with Fillz as my inventory grew to over one thousand within a month. I recently purchased 40,000-50,000 used books from someone who did this sort of thing for a living. He had been doing it for over ten years but abruptly passed away. His family did not know how to tackle the business and ended up selling the entire inventory of his personal and business to me at roughly 20 cents a book. This was a huge jump and an amazing oppurtunity for me to get bumped up to the big leagues. The pitfall being that this person had no ogranization to his inventory nor did he have more then a 1000 of the books listed.

I currently use Fillz and Endicia. My supported marketplaces are amazon, half, alibris, biblio, valore, textbookx and amazon.ca.

Since accuiring the 50,000 books two weeks ago,  I have been able to inventory about 1000, putting my total listed inventory at 2000. Average book price 14$.

I use a handheld scanner and fillz to input my inventory. Although this method is good, it is still very time consuming. Unfortanetely, I feel like my effeciency of listing is largely hindered by the technology of fillz.

I will be making the jump to monsoon edge in the near future, but had a few questions.

Did you notice a huge jump in the overall inventory process and pricing schemtaics when you moved over to Monsoon? i want books to be accurately listed, but would like to increase my listed capacity. (It takes me about two weeks to complete 1000 fully listed inventory.)

Last question is my price break for profit is about $1-2 per book listed. Anything worth less then a dollar is donated to charity and used for tax write off purposes. (loss).

I donate a considerable amount on a weekly basis. I usually price each donated book at a value of $1 per book. Do you think that estimate is believable by most CPA’s or could I write them off for more per book.

]]> By: Jim http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/adams-pick/moving-from-fillz-to-monsoon/comment-page-1/#comment-1288 Jim Wed, 07 Sep 2011 01:37:00 +0000 http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/?p=1134#comment-1288 I actually found that if you use Neatoscan, you can save a ton of money by buying your rolls on Amazon, avoiding the one case minimum and high shipping charges http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005GP8U92/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller= They should be compatible with all programs as they are just standard 2000 label rolls for any zebra printer I actually found that if you use Neatoscan, you can save a ton of money by buying your rolls on Amazon, avoiding the one case minimum and high shipping charges

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005GP8U92/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

They should be compatible with all programs as they are just standard 2000 label rolls for any zebra printer

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/adams-pick/moving-from-fillz-to-monsoon/comment-page-1/#comment-1284 Anonymous Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:28:00 +0000 http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/?p=1134#comment-1284 I agree. I agree.

]]> By: Joe http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/adams-pick/moving-from-fillz-to-monsoon/comment-page-1/#comment-1283 Joe Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:51:00 +0000 http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/?p=1134#comment-1283 Well, one thing that Monsoon does NOT seem to do is pouring money on web pages. IMHO the bulk goes to the software itself. Well, one thing that Monsoon does NOT seem to do is pouring
money on web pages. IMHO the bulk goes to the software itself.

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/adams-pick/moving-from-fillz-to-monsoon/comment-page-1/#comment-1134 Anonymous Wed, 02 Feb 2011 02:51:00 +0000 http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/?p=1134#comment-1134 Jack, If I were just using FBA only I would not consider Monsoon. Monsoon's greatest power is from their multi-marketplace capabilities. FBAPower has provided some tools to automate some of the process. Have you checked them out? If you're interested in other things I might be willing to look into developing some custom for you to automate whatever process you'd like. Jack,

If I were just using FBA only I would not consider Monsoon. Monsoon’s greatest power is from their multi-marketplace capabilities. FBAPower has provided some tools to automate some of the process. Have you checked them out? If you’re interested in other things I might be willing to look into developing some custom for you to automate whatever process you’d like.

]]> By: Jack http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/adams-pick/moving-from-fillz-to-monsoon/comment-page-1/#comment-1131 Jack Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:21:00 +0000 http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/?p=1134#comment-1131 Adam, If your business was 100% Amazon FBA, with no other sales channels, would you find that Monsoon is too expensive? As it stands in February 2011, Amazon's FBA tools have their limits and I am struggling to find any third-party software that offers any automation products that will be helpful vs the cost...thanks for your time! Jack Adam,

If your business was 100% Amazon FBA, with no other sales channels, would you find that
Monsoon is too expensive? As it stands in February 2011, Amazon’s FBA tools have their limits and I am struggling to
find any third-party software that offers any automation products that will be helpful vs the cost…thanks for your time!

Jack

]]> By: Jack http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/adams-pick/moving-from-fillz-to-monsoon/comment-page-1/#comment-1132 Jack Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:21:00 +0000 http://www.sellyourbooksonline.com/?p=1134#comment-1132 Adam, If your business was 100% Amazon FBA, with no other sales channels, would you find that Monsoon is too expensive? As it stands in February 2011, Amazon's FBA tools have their limits and I am struggling to find any third-party software that offers any automation products that will be helpful vs the cost...thanks for your time! Jack Adam,

If your business was 100% Amazon FBA, with no other sales channels, would you find that
Monsoon is too expensive? As it stands in February 2011, Amazon’s FBA tools have their limits and I am struggling to
find any third-party software that offers any automation products that will be helpful vs the cost…thanks for your time!

Jack

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