I’ve mentioned in the past that I occasionally buy books online from wholesalers and eBay when I’m in a slump from searching locally.  Every time I’ve placed an order I’ve done my due diligence in researching the books and checking the marketplace prices that I want to sell them on and I believe this has made me money 10 out of 10 times. However, this is a tactic I only use occasionally; perhaps I need to ramp that up but luckily I haven’t had an ounce of downtime with the local inventory that I’ve been able to source.

Recently, I decided to try out a site that I’ve heard quite a bit about called Liquidation.com.  To understand Liquidation.com think of it as an eBay for selling bulk lots of inventory and just for auctions.  You will find all kinds of things being auctioned off on this site.  I just popped up the site and found a coffee maker, clothes and a vacuum cleaner on the front page together.  However, if you’re a regular reader of this blog, I’m all about books and other media items and this is what I will be concentrating on.

To find the books being auctioned you’ll have to choose to search the category of General Merchandise and then search for books.  Right now, there are 30 auctions going on for bulk lots of books with new auctions being put up all the time.  You’ll find it’s no eBay with the quantity of auctions but you’re also much more likely to get some great deals since you’re buying in bulk.

The kind of books you’ll find at this site are usually books that have either been returned to the store for whatever reason, remainders from big box book stores that did not sell quickly enough or simply any other reason books were not in enough demand to sell in a brick and mortar store.  However, we’ve got a whole other marketplace to sell on which exposes our books to the world; the Internet!  Low demand books in Name Your City, Indiana may be HIGH demand books to millions of people all over the world.  This site is the perfect opportunity to snatch up that inventory that brick and mortar sellers don’t have a market for.

My Experience

My first experience was a positive one.  I managed to put in a big on an auction for $200 and win.  I put in a few bids and finally one won.  Ahead of time, I had looked up the prices for all the books on Amazon and added up the buyer’s premium and shipping cost which I will explain later.  It ended up being around $220 for 2 dozen or so books.  You may think this is high but I immediately saw a $150 book in the mix along with many 10,20 and $30 books with good sales ranks.  It was a no brainer for me.  I paid via Paypal to the seller and the books were on my doorstep a few days later.  It can’t get any easier than that!  Some were dinged up pretty good while some were in like new shape just like the auction said.  After an inspection I listed them as I usually do and I now have made $393.99 off of these books.  Not too bad for a $220 investment, right?

Tips to get the most out of buying on Liquidation.com

1. Research, research, research before you put in a single bid on a lot of books.  You’ll find these lots span from highly valuable to worthless.   This is why you have to check prices before you make a bid.  Most auctions will have a manifest for you to look at to see what’s selling.  Sometimes the books are “salvage” which means you get what you get and that’s it.  It’s a gamble sometimes and the only time I’ve gambled it paid off very well.  Notice that no ISBNs exist.  I’ve never seen an auction with an ISBN.  To speed up looking these up on Amazon I use the Firefox browser.   I use a little Add-On called Amazon Search that allows me to highlight anything, right click and then do a search from any webpage.  It speeds up looking at these books considerably.

Liquidation.com Manifest

2. Know that the books that you buy will typically be “as is”. Almost all of the lots of books that I’ve seen are sold “as is” which means no returns have been made and no descriptions are usually in the auction for the books.  It’s a gamble and even if you ask a question to the seller what the condition of the books are you’ll get a response back that says something like “it varies.  If you’re expecting all like new books then forget about it but you may get some like new, some good and a few only that are acceptable.  Luckily, I was able to list all of the books that I got.

3. Don’t forget about buyer’s premium and shipping. A buyer’s premium fee is tacked onto every auction.  A buyer’s premium can be described as “a standard auctioneering fee that helps cover the cost associated with sourcing products, marketing auctions, running the marketplace and managing services such as payment collection, fulfillment, shipping and inspection”.  You can expect anywhere from 5-10% added onto your final sale price.  Finally, don’t forget about the shipping cost. Shipping bulk lots of books can get expensive real quick.  Always get a shipping quote before placing a bid.

4. Setup a search agent. I’m never regularly going to any website but I am in my email every day.  Wouldn’t it be nice to get new auctions on the site in your email?  You can with their search agents.  You can input a search query for books and then get periodic emails that meet your search criteria.

Liquidation.com search agent

If you’ve been around book sourcing for awhile you’ll know that you can find books nearly anywhere that you can resell for a profit.  Liquidation.com is yet another way to try your hand at buying low and selling high.  Sometimes you’ll get a great deal and sometimes you’ll get outbid.  It’s all a piece of the auction game and I can say from my experience that it’s well worth playing.

If there’s one point that I stress again and again on this blog and in my book, Used Books: Big Business – The Secrets to Selling Books Online for Big Profits, it’s that being able to consistently find new inventory is a crucial part of being successful at selling used books online.  It doesn’t matter if you’re working at this full-time, or as a side project to supplement your main income: new inventory is the lifeblood of your sales efforts.

So it’s with that in mind that I want to introduce you to a website that I have been using for awhile called Salehoo.  I’ve waited a little while to tell you about SaleHoo because I wanted to test drive it for a bit, check out the full range of services they have to offer, and really get a feel for how they could help me find salable inventory. As a bonus, it also provides an active and knowledgeable reseller community that is an invaluable source of connections, sales research, and even training tools for a whole host of useful functions.

I’m very enthusiastic about SaleHoo as a new resource, and recommend that all of my readers who are serious about selling books online subscribe and get started.  So you can judge for yourself what SaleHoo has to offer, let me tell you a little bit more about it.

What Is SaleHoo?

In their own words:

“SaleHoo is an online wholesale directory and community for online traders, eBay sellers, and traditional retailers. We have a huge directory you can use to find a wholesaler, dropshipper or manufacturer for pretty much any product you can think of.  We also realize that having a great directory won’t do you any good if you don’t know where to begin, so we also provide a vast array of training materials, customer support and community activity to help online sellers get their businesses off the ground!”

SaleHoo brings together wholesalers and resellers from around the world into a single convenient place.  Then SaleHoo adds forums, research tools, and customer support to turn what could have been just another marketplace into a thriving sales community.

Books, Books, and More Books!

Of course, the main thing that I’m interested in is how SaleHoo can help me sell books online, and the quick answer is “Inventory!”  SaleHoo has nineteen main categories, including Books & Magazines, DVDs & Movies, Video Gaming, etc., and each main category is further subdivided into a number of sub-categories.  For example, Books & Magazines is further broken down into:

• Children’s Books
• Fiction Books
• Magazines
• Non-Fiction Books
• Textbooks

Each sub-category contains the listings for those wholesalers, pages and pages of them.  A brief writeup and full contact information is included for each.  Browsing through the sub-categories, you will quickly see that you now have the opportunity to find hundreds of thousands of books that were previously unknown to you!

Other Media

I’ve begun to get more active in selling other media items, and I know a lot of you out there are doing the same thing: there’s a lot of money to be made in selling used DVDs, CDs, and video games.  SaleHoo has extensive sub-categories for each of these products, and the contacts come from around the world.  SaleHoo is the only site I’ve come across that offers such a convenient format for getting in touch with such a huge variety of wholesalers from across the globe.

And if you happen to be active in other areas, SaleHoo has you covered there as well.  They have categories for almost anything you can think of, including Antiques & Collectibles, Baby Gear, Food & Beverages, Sporting Goods & Entertainment, Toys & Games, and a lot more.  I haven’t explored these areas, since I’m not active in them, but I expect that they are just as complete and full of outstanding contacts as the book and media sections are.

The SaleHoo Community

Online marketplaces have proliferated everywhere, but SaleHoo sets itself apart by offering a number of helpful community services.  You can get in touch with wholesalers and resellers directly on the SaleHoo Forums.  These forums are well-trafficked and are full of useful information and advice on a number of different subjects, including importing & customs, specific brands, scams & ripoffs, and more.

SaleHoo also offers some very useful tools that can help you optimize or expand your online storefront.  They offer advice about creating your own website, email marketing, ecommerce basics, business registration, eBay strategies, and a whole lot more.  It’s information you could spend untold hours trying to piece together from different places, all in one convenient location and tailored specifically to the online entrepreneur.

Lastly, SaleHoo offers a unique set of research tools for eBay sellers.  These tools allow you to use keyword searches, check sales data, track demand, and generate links to suppliers on the SaleHoo wholesaler lists in order to find inventory for hot items.  Once you have a chance to explore the wealth of information that the tools provide, you can really begin to focus your eBay sales efforts and concentrate on items that offer the best chance for a healthy profit.

Make SaleHoo a Part of Your Online Sales Strategy

The past few months that I have been learning to use all of the options that SaleHoo has to offer has been time very well spent.  I recommend signing up for a SaleHoo subscription to all of my readers, whether you’re looking to optimize your storefront or expand into new areas.  The exposure to new sources of inventory would be worth it by itself, but the outstanding SaleHoo community experience and their potent eBay research tools can really give your business a boost to the next level.  Even if your online bookselling efforts are currently a side job in support of your main income, signing up for and exploring SaleHoo can help you achieve greater earnings and the motivation to get more out of your efforts.

Keep at it, and let me know if SaleHoo helps you too!

Adam

It’s cold outside.  I mean, really cold, especially where I live at.  Currently, there is an eight degree wind chill.  At this time of the year, I envy those living in the southern states.  This weather sucks and I hate being out in it.  I know I’m not the only one that lives in the midwest or the northern states freezing their tails off.  I also know that I’m not the only online used book seller that depends on their income no matter what time of the year it is.  Because of this, I thought it was only fitting to write up a few tips that I do to stay warm yet still maintain and even increase my sales during this time of the year when I’d rather not brave the cold at a used book sale, head to the post office, drive to the thrift store to check on the book stock or anything that gets me out in the cold.

1. Buy Your Book Inventory Online

Buying books online is very different than what a lot of used book sellers are used to, however, it can still be very profitable, much easier to find inventory if you know where to look and the best part of all, let’s you stay in the comfort of your warm home with a hot cup of coffee while you search the entire globe for book inventory from your armchair!  Buying online requires a different mindset because A. your profit margins are going to be lower and B. you might have to buy in bulk.  Gone are the days of throwing a few bucks at the proprietor of a yard sale and getting a few dozen, highly salable books.  Buying books online requires you to do your research, but because you have plenty of time you can be 100% sure you’ll make the profit you’re wanting before you buy.  I discuss buying online in Chapter 2 of my eBook, Used Books: Big Business.

• Browse the Craigslist book listings in your local area as well as areas around the country.  Normally, Craigslist is meant for local-only transactions but I’ve had some great success with simply asking the seller if they’re willing to ship books to me if I pay for the shipping.  Craigster.net, for example, is a site that allows you to input any category that you wish, put in a search term and search every single Craigslist posting.
• Browse the eBay books category.  Specifically, check out eBay wholesale book lots to see if there are any listings going for cheap.  A word of caution though with the lots is that some are online booksellers like yourself just getting rid of penny books so your mileage may vary.  Also, pay attention to the individual listings.  By clicking through to a listing you can typically get the ISBN which you can easily plug into Amazon to get the current market price.
• Consider buying your books from wholesalers.  This method requires a little planning and an official business tax ID, typically, but these wholesalers sell to all kinds of booksellers.  They sell off remainders, hurts and other books for very cheap sometimes and you can get steals.  However, there might be a minimum you can order.  Check out sites such as Book Depot or the American Book Company to get an idea of what they have.

2. Take Advantage of Online Postage Printing

I’ve been blogging about this topic for a long time and still am surprised with the amount of people still going to the post office, standing in line and even paying higher postage fees.  Printing your postage online can save you money, create a more professional looking package and again, going with the theme, keep you warm!

• Read my newsletters.  I know, this is a shameless plug.
• Use a service like Endicia.  This service is the most popular online postage printing service as well as the easiest to use.
• Buy yourself a new or used Zebra LP-2844 printer from Amazon or check out these search results from eBay.  This is again a very popular label printer and a purchase that I made that I would make again in a heart beat.  I made a real short video review on the Zebra label printer on YouTube.

3. Have the USPS come to you

Unlike UPS, the United States Postal Service will pick up any of your packages for FREE!

• Go online and schedule the USPS to pick up your books.  They have one catch though and it’s unfortunate for us booksellers.  There has to be at least one Priority Mail package in the group.
• Make friends with your mail person.  I’d been scheduling pickups for months and months and finally just asked my mail lady if I had to keep doing this since I ship orders every day.  She confirmed that it was OK and that she would just pick whatever I had on the doorstep every day.  Not only did I forgo the Priority Mail only stipulation, I also didn’t have to remember to actually schedule it all the time!

I’ve used these tips for a long time now and have been able to stay warm when others are out battling the awful winter weather making the same kind of money I’m making.  I love to think that while I’m sitting in my relaxing armchair watching the snow fall, laptop on my lap, hot cocoa in one hand and a mouse in the other, I’m able to maintain a constant flow of inventory and orders all while keeping toasty warm.  I hope that you can use these tips and others so you can do the same!

I hope everyone had a great holidays.  Welcome back!  Now get back to selling those books, you slackers!