Best for seller: Ebay or Amazon?

[Diego]

I will be downsizing parts of my book collection and will be selling less collectable, not-expensive books, both magic and non-magic related of a variety of subjects. Can anyone, from their experience/knowledge, say if Ebay or Amazon or _____(?) is best for the seller?

I might post a few items on this site, but much of what I would like to sell, is non-magic.

[Q. Kumber]

Having sold quite a bit on eBay, I can tell you what I do. I list for 7 days and most of the time start on a Sunday evening. Hopefully most payments will have come in by Monday morning and I can get the majority of them packed and shipped in one go.

I try and list at least ten items, which I have prepared in advance, and schedule the listings to start with a minute or two between each. 99% of the time each listing starts at 99p. Some will go for less than expected and others will go for more. When I upload the listings, I estimate the amount I would be happy with when they sell. I've never had any weeks that sold for less and frequently many times more.

If you put items up at a high price (Buy It Now) they may take weeks to sell, or even never sell at all.

It helps if what you are selling is good, hard to find or collectible.

For less collectible items, I recommend you put up bundles and at least one of the books in that bundle should be a tad rare or desirable. You want to get a bidding war going.

It helps to have a good description and plenty of photos. eBay has an advanced editing option and I recommend using it as you can have a headline, colours and different typefaces.

[Diego]

Thanks for the response.

Anyone else? What about Ebay vs. Amazon?

[Evil Clown]

eBay is going to have more serious collectors for sure. That said, save yourself the fees and sell them through the Magic Cafe or on one of the Magic sales groups on Facebook.

[Brett McCarron]

Diego,

I've used both. For fixed price items, especially books, Amazon has worked out satisfactorily for me. However, try as I might, their search function brings out so many irrelevant results, that it's often a chore to find meaningful results. As of late, I favor eBay, due to their better (in my opinion) search feature. If its hard for me to find a specific item, I assume that it must also be difficult for my customers.

However, for very desirable items--especially those that haven't come up for sale in quite some time--I've found that the auction format helps determine the market price best. Thus, eBay is my preferred platform. Kudos to eBay, too, for a search system that seems to work better than Amazon's. I used eBay for magic and music items and books and couldn't be happier.

--Brett

[Diego]

Thanks Brett and others, appreciate the feedback.

Anyone else regarding best practices on using either/or?

[Q. Kumber]

I don't know anything about Amazon's charges but figure on a 20% cost on dealing with eBay. By the time you take in eBay's fees and taxes (they also take a percentage of the postal charges) and the PayPal fees it's close enough to 20%, at least in the UK.

Your main consideration should be how fast you want to sell your books. If you want to sell them relatively quickly than eBay auctions are the way to go. If you don't mind selling over months, then eBay's 'Buy It Now' or Amazon are in consideration. I regularly see Buy It Now items at ridiculously high prices, obviously hoping for someone is either daft or desperate.

There are multiple free used magic sites on Facebook as well (not to mention the GENII forum), and you will only have the PayPal fees.

The prices you get largely depend on how scarce the book is, and in auctions, how many people want it at that particular time.

[Diego]

Good points, drawn from experience.

Thanks again.