I would like to ask a question to experienced sellers!
Hi, I'm relative new and would like to know some answers, how there are people making money in the Media/Books category selling products at $5-$6 and when i do my math i see no profit, is there any explanation or of course something I don't see?
I would like to ask a question to experienced sellers!
Hi, I'm relative new and would like to know some answers, how there are people making money in the Media/Books category selling products at $5-$6 and when i do my math i see no profit, is there any explanation or of course something I don't see?
0 resposta
Seller_DdmPiA1p1S2Wu
At the price of $5.45, I think they have to be selling at a loss. They may be selling at a loss to try and raise their number of sales to depress a defect on their account to keep their account from being deactivated, or they may just not know what they are doing and losing money and will probably be posting on these forums before long asking how they sold all of these items and at the end of the cycle owe Amazon money.
Seller_Hi7wbO2Kbo6bl
For books, there have always been mega sellers on Amazon and other sites.
They used to be known on Amazon as the dollar sellers.
Mostly they didn't make much or even lost a little on those individual sales. But, with hundreds of thousands of listings, they had very good odds of getting multiple book orders. Then, with the way Amazon set up the shipping in media (remember sellers had no control back then), they would make money on multiple book orders.
That has gone by the wayside. But the businesses have adapted and, with good contracts with USPS for discount on shipping, can make money where others without huge inventories and shipping discounts cannot.
And of course there is never any shortage of clueless sellers who haven't figured out that they are losing money with every sale.
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
I've not seen one recently, but there was a time where at least once a month or so you would see someone post "Amazon has never paid me, now they say I owe THEM money", from someone who just listed books and never did the very basic math that you were smart enough to do, and didn't realize they were losing money on every sale.
The worst one was a guy who took 2 years to wonder why he never got any money, and ended up owing (IIRC) about $37K.
Note that the megas can get a discounted Media Mail rate, so that helps. But for the small seller, anything under about $8 is a loser; and at that price, it better be small (<1 lb).
When figuring your bottom price, remember also that there will be returns, and there is always the risk of bad feedback. Selling a book where your profit is $1 is often not worth the risks, not to mention the time involved. And don't forget to figure in your costs for packing materials.
Seller_9e9O9DUyGquP9
Because mega sellers aren't paying $4.25 to ship a book. They do a big enough volume to pre-sort their packages by zip code, and deliver them to a USPS regional distribution center. The more work they do for the postal service (sorting by zip, grouping their packages and delivering them closer to their destinations), the cheaper their rates are. A commercial Media Mail rate 1 pound book ships for $2.59, 2 pounds goes for $3.34. But here's the rub: they have to do a mighty big volume, consistently, to get those rates. So those cheapie books that might only make them pennies DO fill out their minimum piece counts with the postal service. With such a big difference in postage price, they're better off even breaking even on some individual orders to save on postage on the truly profitable ones. You have to look at the whole picture in this business model, rather than individual sales.
I worked in the catalog and direct mail industry for many years, and while we had our mailing list of customers and prospects that we carefully curated, sometimes we fell a few pieces short to fill out a zip code to get the postage discounts we wanted. The answer? Double mail a few people to fill out the mailing. It was cheaper to eat the cost of some extra mail pieces that we knew would get tossed, than to stick to our list and pay higher postage rates for the entire mailing.
The same approach applies to books and mega sellers. The small independent sellers will go out of business quickly trying to follow their prices, because the costs just aren't the same.
Seller_1056OIqQZz0c6
I remember around 2000 that my Professor at college said that Amazon has yet to make a profit. That was my E BUSINESS class! Noone knew what E Business was back then.
Seller_ToPPYvOWlyp9j
In media, we used to tell newbies not to list anything under $10. In these inflationary times, with packaging and shipping sky-high, would say it's $12/$14, except for the smallest, non-vintage PB.
As for records, we don't sell 'em. A non-profit for which I volunteer and has been selling on AMZ for 17-18 years, uses a flat cardboard mailer for records, which cost less than what you're spending on packaging.
@Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw may disagree since sells media both FBA and FBM. Unfortunately, unless OP has experience selling elsewhere, newbies need to stay away from FBA till they know the AMAZON system and understand which products sell quickly.
Seller_hWr5LDOEARquM
yes at that price point you are losing $ ......Amazon controls shipping rates so I lose $ on shipping every time as USPS has raised rates and Amazon has not.....I recently raised prices on small ticket items just to break even.......another thing they always side with buyers when there is a dispute.....so that's a loss.....reason I stay is every now & then you have a home run with a sale......peace out
Seller_1oT4ZOwrSByEE
they are dumping inventory to not pay fba storage fees, its the race to the bottom
Seller_2srXkS44rN39i
i started out selling media online about 2001, and even a couple years later can remember shipping a cd with stamps costing around $1.10. The problem is that fees and shipping have gone way up, but the value of the media hasnt. That cd i was selling for $6 is still worth maybe $6-8 to the buyer, but with fees/shipping eating up most of that, i dont bother anymore.
Seller_CW0P5hgbsiqWX
Yes, there is a lot of something you do not see. Here is why we can sell new books for less than the wholesale price.
The price shown on a new book is usually twice the price paid to the publisher.
EXAMPLE:
- book sells for $30 and I pay $15. I buy a case of 48 books for $720.
- I sell 45 books for the cover price of $30, earning an income of $1350 on the sold books
- Minu the original $750 price paid of $720, I have a profit of $630.
- Now that the demand has dwindled, I will sell the remaining 3 for $10 each on Amazon, less that the wholesale price paid.
- I'm happy to get rid of them and the buyer is happy to really get a bargain. It is a win / win for both.
- So, I add the actual $15 profit for the 3 books in actually made to the $630 and made a Total profit of $645 for the case of 48 books.
- Now multiply this times 10,000 titles, and things work out quite well.
