Side Hustling 101: Selling Books On Amazon

Since June '15 I have been successfully selling books on Amazon.  Books, thrift stores,  mobile phones, computers, retail,  the Internet and entrepreneurship are high on my list of things I've gained joy and satisfaction from over the years. I stumbled across this idea of selling books after reading "How to Make $750 Selling Used Books" on PennyHoarder.com. 

I had a few books lying around that someone gave me and so I fumbled my way around setting up an Amazon sellers account and listing them. I forgot about them actually. Then randomly a few weeks later an email notification and text message told me to ship a book. 

Shipping is still foreign to me. I have learned what media mail is during the process of learning how to sell books on Amazon.  If I am shipping the book myself I take the package to the post office and pay for postage there. I know I'm using too much packing tape and I haven't transitioned into buying my shipping supplies wholesale yet.  The Fullfillment by Amazon shipments get dropped off at my local Staples for UPS pickup I print this postage from my printer at home. The boxes get really heavy but I haven't figured out the UPS pickup yet and because I still have a full time job arranging a pickup isn't the most convenient thing for me to do at this point. 

I attempted to ship out 100 books a week but it was a bit overwhelming. The last few times I sent 100 book out a time it seemed a bit time consuming and I felt I didn't have the best system in place for labeling and making sure the order was correct. Most recently I sent in a fba shipment of about 45 books which seemed manageable. I was able to label the books myself within a timely manner. The attempt to send in 100 books a week is a goal to get to 5,000 books in inventory. Currently I have about 700 books .  There are about 100 of them in my home. I ship a book just about every other day and Amazon ships about 1 a day. So, I have to come up with a better plan.

I am still trying to find a best practice system for manage inventory and keep track of what sells. Normally, I don't spend over $2.00 for a book. On an average its $0.50 for a used softback and $0.75 - $1.00 for a used hardback book. Textbooks usually cost about $2.00. I stay away from novels mostly. 

FYI

This blog is my attempt to help me stay organized, share my knowledge and of course connect with other Amazon booksellers who have been doing this much longer than I have. I'm exciting and secretly wishing to quit my day job. 

So here are 4 of my book finds. Remember these are all softback books so I only paid $0.50. (High Profit Margins!!!)

Screenshot from my mobile Amazon Sellers app 

(Screenshot from my mobile Amazon Sellers app)

This one was a hard cover book. My oop was $1.00.

(Screenshot from my mobile Amazon Sellers app )