Hey guys, Adam here.  I apologize for the long delay in blog posts.  I’m concentrating the huge majority of my time now on building my first web application called eBizControl.  I’m really excited about it because it’s going to save people so much time and also give them some deep insight into their expenses so that you can concentrate on what’s making the most money and forget what’s not.  When I first started it, I was in WAY over my head.  Building a full-featured web application like this is much more than what I had anticipated.  This is why it’s taken over 2  years to get where I am now.    Anyway, enough about my new online endeavor.

If you can believe it, my own book business is still kickin’ albeit not as profitable as it once was.  At it’s peak, it was grossing ~$10K/month.  Nowadays, I literally spend less than an hour a week managing it.  Even though it’s not near what it was once, it’s still grossing $2-4K/month now.  How?  2 reasons.  FBA and selling on consignment.  You see, when I was hitting it hard spending 10-15 hours/week sourcing, listing and fulfilling orders along with two employees helping me I seem to have accumulated a large backstock of books; one of the benefits of not just listing low sales rank books.

These kind of books known as "long tail" books were the books that would scan as a low selling price of $50 but would have a sales rank in the 3,5,6, even 10 million range.  Some people thought I was nuts for messing with those books but I’ve always been one to think for the future; not for the now.  I figured as long as I had the space I was going to fill my warehouse from floor to ceiling with these high sales rank books.  They’ll sell SOMETIME, right?  Yep.  They didn’t sell right away of course but I’m still selling a couple books/day now that I’ve had sitting on my shelf for over 3 years just waiting for that special person to come along.

So, in a nutshell, do not rely on low sales rank of even sales rank at all sometimes in your decision-making as to what to purchase and list.  If you’re hard at it now, you may be like me someday where your book business may become a small side business/hobby and you’ll get to enjoy nearly completely passive income.

Another thing I wanted to mention was my first endeavor into selling books on consignment.  I wasn’t really looking for such an arrangement but word got out that I sold books online and a guy approached about it.  Turns out he has a lucrative source for textbooks but doesn’t want to mess with the listing and fulfillment process.  I was hesitant at first because I really wasn’t looking to expand the business but after careful consideration I figured it was better that risking my own dough buying inventory when I could get it for free.   After almost 6 months of selling textbooks on consignment I can gladly say it’s worked out well for my pocketbook but not for my time management.

Being a web programmer now, the first order of business I did, but far don’t expect everyone to do is to develop a small web script to give to my consignee.  This allows him to scan books before handing off to me to ensure he will ONLY give me the books I’ll accept.  He scans a book, it checks Amazon for weight, low price and  few other things then runs through my rules and outputs an either ACCEPT or REJECT.  It’s working out very well.  He’s able to scan everything he has and I can then pick up the books that I know I’ll able to make some cash from.  I’ve decided to release that here if anyone else is a web programmer or may know someone that can help you implement this.   I’ll also offer to help with this at a cost of $50/hr with a 1 hour minimum.  If you’d me to help out, please email me at adam [at] sellyourbooksonline.com.  DOWNLOAD THE FREE PRICE CHECKER HERE.

Selling on consignment along with selling your own books under the same account can sometimes get a little hairy.  This was a new venture for me and I really learned a lot along the way.  I thought it would be beneficial to you guys to share a little of what I had learned.  Here are a few tips that will help you selling items on consignment.

• "Tag" your consignee’s items

This is essential to keep track of what’s yours and what’s theirs.   Depending on what software you use (if any), this can be very different.  I use Monsoon so I setup a specific classification for my consignee’s books.  This classification gets remembered when the order comes in.  I can then easily run some custom reports that I created to pull out those books to get sales totals.  If you don’t use any listing software, you could probably use a SKU prefix such as "CONS-ABC123" meaning this is an item you’re selling on consignment, for example.

• Settle on fair compensation for each sale

It’s going to get hard but you’re going to have to get used to a fairly low sales percentage you get to keep.  I’m keeping 35% of the total PROFIT from every order.  This is 35% of the total sales price minus Amazon fees, shipping supplies, postage, etc.  Be sure to make it clear what’s expected ahead of time.  Is it a percentage before or after all expenses are paid?

• Set your minimum sale price accordingly

If you’re now only getting 35% of what you used to, you have to jack up the price considerably to still make it worth your while.  Run the numbers like you did (you did, didn’t you?) to figure out what your minimum sale price will be prior to listing.  You don’t want to get into a situation where you’re losing cash after you’ve paid your consignee.  This also means keeping your repricing strategies different as well.

• Do not  accept ALL books

This tip goes hand in hand with the previous tip.  The reason I mention this one last is because I’ve came across so many books that I’ve been given that simply have no value.  I simply assumed the books I was given were valuable.  Always spend the time to check prices ahead of time.  You’re just wasting your time if you’ve got a minimum price of $15 bucks set in your pricing rules and you list a book that’s worth $5, that book’s going to be sitting on shelf for years.

I hope this long overdue post has helped some of you out.  As always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

- Adam

Hello, all!  Yes, I’m still alive but judging from the last post I would have probably thought I was dead.  The reason for the long post hiatus was simply a strategic time management decision.  You see, this blog, my used book business, my new web app eBizControl, my full-time job and my family take up a lot of time.  Oh, don’t forget about sleep.  I’ve decided to trim some of the activities and regular blog posts was one of them.  I hope you understand.  In any case, I recently received an email from Susan Scheck for a request to write a blog post.  I said absolutely!  You’ll find that Susan’s stories may closely resemble your own.  This is why I really enjoy these types of posts.  Thanks for being a reader!  – Adam

I’d like to share with you a source that, on occasion, can turn up some decent, if not amazingly profitable, books: university and college libraries. Most libraries, as we know, have periodic or ongoing book sales, and university and college libraries are no different.  If you live in an urban or suburban area, there are likely to be several within a comfortable distance. For example, I live within a half-hour’s drive of six colleges and universities, and another three more can be found within a 45-minute drive, so there’s always a ready source of books close by.

Once you’ve called your local libraries to find out book sale details and to make sure they are open to the general public (chances are they are), you can start scouting. I use ScoutPal on my cell phone, which for the last week has been a free trial (I’m new to serious scouting). Yet, in the last week, I’ve purchased about 35 books from one library, all in new or used-like new condition, without the usual library markings. In fact, in speaking to the sales clerk I found out they had been donations—and she also told me that it happens frequently enough that dealers come there to buy books. Music to my ears, even though I have some competition.

Below are some paperback books I found today, typical of what I have found so far:

Exchange Is Not Robbery: More Stories of an African Bar Girl (Paperback)
New: 9 from $17.99
Used from: $7.48 (Used: acceptable)
Rank: #1,954,335 in Books

Religion and Healing in America (paperback)
12 new from $31.41
19 Used from $20.00
Amazon Sales Rank: 347,724

Rethinking God as Gift: Marion, Derrida, and the Limits of Phenomenology
(Perspectives in Continental Philosophy)
12 New from $22.00
4 Used from $22.85
Amazon Sales Rank:1,183,918

And now, the hidden gem:

Religion, Revolution and English Radicalism: Non-conformity in Eighteenth-Century
Politics and Society
List Price: $74.00
15 All from $71.46
12 New from $71.52
3 Used from $71.46

Amazon Sales Rank: 532,574

You will notice that this last book is selling used from within $3 of the list price, and the new and used prices are pennies apart. The icing on the cake: the sales ranking. This is an expensive book that is on track to sell fast. In fact, I suspect it might be on more than a few required reading lists for the upcoming semester.  That’s another plus when sourcing from university libraries: the books are scholarly or semi-scholarly, so they may command higher prices and be in high demand several times a year, at the start of each academic semester. The flip side of this is that it’s common to find rankings in the three or four millions, yet it’s just as likely you may find books with a higher rank and with the potential to command a higher price. When you pay 50 cents or $1 per book, like I did, it’s just too good an opportunity to pass up. So go back to school—and bring a backpack.

After many long months of delays I’m proud to announce my newest eBook entitled How to Source Used Books is finally done!  I originally hesitated writing this due to the amount of detail I reveal in it.  Frankly, I was a little scared at first for fear that revealing this information would somehow affect my own sources.  I don’t just say this for marketing fluff.  It really did take me awhile to get up the courage to write this eBook!  However, after I thought about it and how I regularly tell readers that I’m 100% open with everything it would be almost hypocritical of me to hold back this information.  Also, because my readership is on an international scale I think I can take my chances that no one that purchases this eBook lives close enough to me to matter.

What makes this eBook different is that I not only tell you all my sources and every source I’ve heard of but I teach you how to get your own sources!  I think giving you a list of sources and saying good luck isn’t enough.  Everyone’s situation is going to be different and what works in my area may not work in yours.  This is why I wanted to teach you skills and idea-generating topics so that you could apply the same principles I use just in your own way.  I’m very excited to finally get this newest eBook completed and hope that it really helps your business.

I’m also offering my always 100% money-back guarantee on this eBook so no need to feel like you’re taking a big risk.

If you value your business and are running short of books to sell this is the eBook for you.  It is the most important piece that has allowed me to grow my business and I’m sure it will help yours as well.

- Adam

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Hi guys.  Adam here.  I know it’s been awhile since a post and I apologize, but I’ve got a great post for today and some exciting news!  Summer is upon us and it’s time to start getting out there and finding some books to sell.  I always hated scouting in the winter because of the gloomy weather but the spring and summer time was pretty fun.  Since I started buying in bulk long ago I haven’t been able to get out and enjoy the weather but financially it was the best decision for me.

In any case, for all of you out book scouting hitting up those yard sales, thrift stores and FOL sales I’ve got an important announcement for you.  Also, for anyone that has decided to reel in books by the ton instead of by the title and buy in bulk I’ve also got something important to share.  The inventory sourcing eBook I’ve been promising forever (sorry!) is finally nearing completion!  It will be available via the email list first starting on Friday, May 20th.  You’re already signed up aren’t you?  I’m finally setting a date so you can hold me accountable.  I could give you some lame excuse at how I was too busy and that I was diligently working on it 24/7 for all this time but that would be a lie.  Family, friends, work, books, eBizControl, a new inventory receiving app I’m working on and life simply trumped the project for awhile.  I have, however, managed to spill my brain into this thing and literally take dozens of hours dumping every source I’ve ever used or have known to be used in this eBook.

I’m very proud of this eBook because it’s not conventional in any way.  I don’t simply give you a spreadsheet and say “Here’s your list of sources now give me your money.”  However you can just give me your money if you really want to.  In all seriousness, I attempt to give you the tools and show you HOW to source books not just WHERE to source books.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to include what I call a ‘”cheat sheet” at the end for all of you to devour if simply want to take it and run.  More importantly though, it’s all about how you should be thinking so you can come out with your own local sources on the fly.  It will spark ideas in your head that you’d never even considered.  I have a unique mind (ask my wife) and I tend to come up with very unconventional methods to accomplish conventional goals.  I share this thinking with you in the eBook.

Enough with the shameless self promotion and whetting your appetite.  I wonder if this whole lack of supply idea really increases demand.  Eh, we’ll see. Just so that you haven’t read this entire post so far without some good information to go on I’ve decided to share a piece of of the eBook with you today.  It’s a section from the beginning basically introducing the topic of sourcing and why it’s important.  I hope you enjoy it.

Sourcing Introduction

Sourcing.  It sounds like such a professional word, doesn’t it?  To me, sourcing goes hand in hand with other business terms like strategy, innovation, logistics and procurement.  However, when you break it down, it’s actually a very easy concept to understand.  At its most basic level, sourcing is simply a process by where you find things.  Forget selling for moment.  The word sourcing simply means where you find people, products, supplies, etc.  It’s a very basic concept and one that I truly want you to understand.

We can take it a step further and explain the term in a more useful manner to define it as “where to find products to sell not even specifically related to our niche of book selling”.  The number of different businesses is about how many types of sourcing you’ll find in the business world.  Manufacturers need to source raw materials to create products.   Distributors need to source manufacturers to find products to sell to large wholesalers.  Wholesalers need to find distributors to get access to products.  Finally, retailers need to find wholesalers to sell products to people like you and me.  It’s a huge chain in which the original raw materials come out of the earth, get morphed into a product, get exchanged hands a few times with an ever-increasing price and finally make it to you and me in the form of our new iPhone, kitchen cleaner or car part.  I’m sure sourcing isn’t a foreign concept to you; after all, you bought this book.  If you didn’t have an idea on what sourcing meant, I doubt you would have given the title a second look.  Let’s take a deeper look into book sourcing now to give you a sense of its importance.

The Importance of Sourcing

As an online bookseller or a merchant in general, if you don’t have a product to sell, what do you have?  I doubt that customers are going to throw money at you because of your good looks.  You have to provide some kind of value for them and for us booksellers, that value is quality books at a competitive cost.  To be a successful online bookseller there are essentially 4 different processes you need to master: sourcing, listing, order fulfillment and customer service.  Each is necessary to the health of your business, but without sourcing, you have nothing to list and the cycle continues on down the line.

If you ever run into a situation where you have limited time to perform more duties that can possibly get done, you’ll need to prioritize.  To give you an idea of the importance of sourcing, picture the following scenario.  Realize that this doesn’t happen every day, but this is a real world example that I personally have had to overcome.  It is critical to know how to prioritize.

<insert eBook content spoiling personal example here>

I don’t want to tell you that this happens everyday because it does not, so don’t get scared about the potential pressure.  I only tell you this story from experience and what you must do to seize an opportunity to grow your business.  It is critical that you understand that sourcing is the #1 most important arrow in your quiver for more sales.

Now that I hope I’ve given you a sense of the importance of sourcing, I would like for you to get a good understanding of how we use sourcing.  To do this, it’s a great idea to paint a picture of where a book comes from and how it ends up in the hands of your lucky Amazon customer.  <insert one of my only sources I get my inventory from here> Unless I’m buying direct from the publisher or from a large retailer like Borders, Barnes and Noble or Amazon where the book is still “fresh”, I’m probably only seeing a small piece of a book’s life…

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Fulfillment by Amazon is one of the most popular services for the small-time bookseller.  It seems that it has gotten so much attention both from Amazon’s marketing team as well as from guys like Chris Green at FBAblog, Nathan Holmquist at SellFBA.com and countless other people.  I’m included in this list ever since I started writing about my first experiences with FBA way back in October of 2009. My first FBA post got over 36 comments which is huge for this blog.

I’ve raved about the service many times but I’ve never actually written an informative post about the downsides to FBA.  You can’t have your cake and eat it too, right?  In my opinion, there is little information out there about the downsides to using FBA.  For the novice to the service it’s wise to always take the good with the bad before jumping in.  To start off with, I found a blog a few months ago that is solely dedicated on telling you how much FBA sucks.  Coincidentally it’s called Problems with FBA.  It’s not updated that often but there are a few posts that make valid points against Amazon’s service.

Here is a list of my reasons why you may not want to use Amazon’s FBA service.  Take them as you will and weigh how important these issues will be to your business.  Choose accordingly.

1. Higher fees than listing yourself

FBA includes 3 additional fees than if you were fulfilling orders yourself.  These are called the Pick & Pack, Weight Handling and Storage fees.  When selling an item via FBA be prepared to tack on an additional flat fee of 50 cents plus 40 cents/lb and 45 cents/month per cubic feet of space your stuff takes up.  For comparison let’s say you sell a 1 pound book for a dollar.  If you were to fulfill this yourself your Amazon fees would be ($1 * .15) + $1.35 which would leave you with $-1.20.  Add on the $3.99 standard shipping credit they’ll give you and you’ve got $2.79.  You’ve also got postage (~$2.38) plus shipping supplies (~$0.25) costs and you’ve made 16 cents.  However, let’s say this book was FBA and it’s been in their warehouse for 6 months.  If this book sells via FBA you’ve got your $1 sale price – Commission ($1 * .15) – VCF ($1.35) – Weight handling ($0.40) -  Pick/Pack ($0.50) – Storage (~$0.10) which ends up giving you a net LOSS at a buck ten cents.  Now there is the typical add $3.99 to that which makes up for this lost but this is just an example.

2. Considerably less control

I have no problem with this because once the books are off I could care less as long as they sell.  However some book sellers want ultimate control over their inventory.  Be prepared to relinquish all control to Amazon once they’re out of your hands.  Amazon has full reign to give refunds to customers as they please and deal with customers how they please.  You’re feedback is also subject to Amazon’s performance.  They’re pretty good about sending out your orders in a timely fashion and if you do get a feedback that’s Amazon fault they’re supposed to remove it.  However, you are still relinquishing control of your feedback to Amazon.

3. Risk of paying money for books that DON’T sell

The storage fees for your inventory is minimal but it’s still there.  If you’re selling books out of your home then you have no risk of listing 10,000 books if they don’t sell.  On the contrary if you’ve got 10,000 books in Amazon’s warehouse a monthly storage fee of $300-$40 wouldn’t be out of the question.  Only send high demand books to Amazon to prevent them sticking around too long.

4. $3,438 for changing your mind against FBA

I currently have 5,730 books with the FBA service right now.  Let’s say I had a situation to where I wanted to close down my business for good and stop paying the monthly storage fee for all my books.  Since I have so many books in their warehouses it’s gonna cost me over $3,000 for them to ship them all back to me.  This is because Amazon charges you the same cost that it would cost them to pick and pack the book to a customer of another sales channel like eBay.  This is called the multi-channel fulfillment rate.  Currently, it’s 60 cents per item.  As of this writing, Amazon is still waiving the Lose Weight Exercise-handling fee.  However, due to the increase in usage of the FBA program Amazon has been known to significantly decrease the price of removal to clear up space.  I’ve gotten at least 3 emails so far from them notifying of a decreased price of removal if I decide to do so.

Keep the removal cost in mind once you start sending thousands of books their way because it’s not  free ride back.

5. Waiting to see your current inventory

This is one I just came up with while writing this post. I was trying to get my current inventory numbers and was victim to the message “Your data is more than 24 hours old, please wait a minute and refresh again”.  Typically, it takes longer than a minute but not too much longer. It’s a very minor annoyance to me because it always does show back up but if you’re in a hurry then be prepared to wait a few minutes to see your FBA inventory.

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