Last Updated on September 23, 2021 by BookScouter
Recently, Amazon has come under fire for price targeting and the overall inflation of prices on their site and marketplace. The company originally gained traction in the early 2000s because of its convenient online marketplace that offered competitive prices. Current numbers indicate the company is going down a different path.
Amazon’s global recognition and its value as a convenient marketplace have made it a dominant business, beating out other online businesses as well as competing heavily with established retail stores. Amazon no longer relies on low competitive prices to carry its business because of its popular Prime service and two-day shipping through its fulfillment centers.
Why Selling Used Books on Amazon for One Cent?
In the Amazon marketplace for used books, you will often see books being sold for a mere one cent. It seems absurd that anyone would make one cent in a transaction, but sellers use shipping fees to make money. Amazon used to charge $1.35 plus 15 percent of the item price, but fee changes are set to roll out March 2017. Now, the marketplace will charge sellers $1.80 plus 15 percent of the total price, which includes the item price and shipping. In response, marketplace sellers will have to increase their prices to continue making the same margins. The changes will hurt the sellers of extremely low-priced used books the most.
All They Do Is Win on Used Books
The situation is win-win for Amazon. They receive an influx of money from increased fees, and the increase in used book prices drives buyers to eBook market. Publishers will also sell more new books as the price gap between new and used books shrinks. The changes get two thumbs up from publishers and Amazon, but consumer reactions will range from indifferent to displeased. Consumers may be happy to buy more new books, but ultimately, they probably won’t enjoy the rising prices of used books.
Diminishing profit margins will force sellers out–mainly those who sell extremely low-priced used books. Amazon marketplace sellers should be wary of the March 2017 changes, especially since new fees apply not only to books, but to music, videos, DVDs, software, and video games. The new fees many not sink sellers immediately, but they’ll be bailing out their boats in the coming months.
This is a two edged sword. When selling books on Amazon that are reasonable this will amount to over a one dollar addition. So how and were you buy the books become more important than what you sell them for. The 501 3c Charities won’t care because they don’t have any money into the book and there labor is usual donated by volunteers . so it will just be a matter of raising the price by one dollar. At least the honest dealer will no longer hear I can buy that book for 1 cent. lets see what happens by July.
My father-in-law had a well known book store here in Nashville, Tn. My husband has thousands of books that we could sell to free up room. I went to Amazon a few days ago to start selling. I closed my account today. They wanted 50% of the profit. That’s just not right. I have no idea what Mr. Lang was referring to, but it’s not worth selling books on Amazon anymore. Don’t do it.